The UniversityIndustry Partnership Project

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The University-Industry Partnership Project

• Susan B. Butts
• Senior Director, External Science Technology
  Programs
• The Dow Chemical Company

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The University-Industry Partnership Project
Description

• Launched in 2003 with a focus on re-engineering
  the approach to handling Intellectual Property
  (IP) in industry sponsored research projects at
  universities
• Co-sponsored by
• Government-University-Industry Research
  Roundtable (GUIRR)
• National Council of University Research
  Administrators (NCURA)
• Industrial Research Institute (IRI)
• Project team selected to foster solutions that
  will be accepted
• Balanced representation from the university,
  industry and government communities
• Team members were leaders in sponsored research
  management or represented key stakeholder groups
  (e.g., faculty, postdoctoral fellows)

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The University-Industry Partnership Project
Overview

• The Problem Difficulty in negotiating research
  agreements was leading to tension in U-I
  relations and decline in industry funding for
  research at US universities
• projects delayed or abandoned
• transaction costs increased
• The Causes lack of understanding of difference
  in missions ands needs of partners, lack of
  knowledge of the circumstances of each project,
  reliance on policies, model agreements, or
  boilerplate language
• Solutions Guiding Principles publication, Living
  Studies publication, TurboNegotiator tool, the
  University-Industry Demonstration Partnership

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The University-Industry Partnership Project
Challenges

• Lack of trust between universities and companies
  over IP issues
• Often due to lack of understanding
• Desire to find a one size fits all solution
  like a model agreement
• The outcome of previous efforts to fix the
  problem
• Lack of flexibility, reliance on policy,
  inadequate training of research administrators
  and legal council, failure to look at the big
  picture (overall relationship)
• Focus on risk minimization rather than
  opportunity maximization

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The University-Industry Partnership Project What
To Do Differently

• It is too soon to know whether the project
  (concluded in April 2006) will have a broad
  positive impact on U-I research relationships
• Some issues that were not addressed
• Institutional metrics and reward structures do
  they support or oppose the new approach

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The University-Industry Partnership Project
Where to Find More Information

• The presentations and publications for the
  Project Summit and information on the new
  University-Industry Demonstration Partnership can
  be found at
• http//www7.nationalacademies.org/guirr/index.html
  click on Meetings and scroll to
  Re-engineering The Partnership