Print
Email
Print Edition Stories
MHT's Doug Banks: Advertising tech traces viewer response
MHT managing editor Rodney Brown on NECN: 22 tech companies give back to community
NECN: Scvngr tours explore cities, campuses by cell phone
Growth in licensing income and startup activity paints a rosy financial picture for local research institutions — as of July 31, 2007.
Licensing income at New England colleges almost tripled from 2004 to 2007, according to a licensing activity survey released last week by the Association of University Technology Managers.
Most of the indicators tracked by the AUTM survey are steady or on the rise, but the statistics describe a period more than a year before the U.S. economy collapsed. Local tech transfer experts are cautiously optimistic growth will continue, despite the tough economic times.
According to MIT Technology Licensing Office director Lita Nelsen, the key statistics are startups, which rose from 58 to 65 in that time; license and option deals, which held steady at 862; and patent applications, which dropped from 1,142 in 2004 to 1,109 in 2007.
The income figures are based on patents filed about 10 years ago, and licensing deals done six to eight years ago, while the other figures hint at future income, she said. “In terms of running an office, we’re much more concerned with new deals being done,” she said.
In fiscal 2008, MIT researchers filed for 282 patents, landed 132 license and option deals, and launched 20 startups, according to MIT’s licensing office website. Those numbers are down from fiscal 2007 (321 patents filed, 173 license/option deals, 23 startups), but Nelsen said her office is mostly business as usual. “We’re still getting deal flow, but everyone’s got long faces,” she said.
The Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center, which is administered from the University of Massachusetts president’s office, promotes tech commercialization for research institutions statewide. Director Abi Barrow said she hasn’t seen startup activity decline, but has seen deal flow slow slightly.
“A lot of people are taking a wait-and-see attitude,” she said.
One thing people are waiting on is President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package, which has created some optimism for the clean tech and life sciences sectors, Barrow said.
Barrow said the deal flow has been slower since the recession began, but she still sees interest in forming startups coming out of the universities. Whether or not they can get funding is the key issue. “We won’t be able to tell that for about a year,” she said.
At Northeastern University, things are looking up. About two weeks ago, Ken Blank started his job as vice chancellor for research. The college turned out two startups in fiscal 2007, up from one in 2006, according to AUTM’s data. Northeastern researchers also executed eight license or option deals in 2007, up from six in 2006. The college is slightly up in both categories for fiscal 2008 and 2009, according to Blank, who called the recession an opportune time.
“People are going to be out there looking for more practical technologies,” Blank said.
In the future, Blank said he thinks academia will more tightly integrate commercialization concepts into undergraduate and graduate research curricula.
“I don’t think many universities are good at marketing technologies,” he said.
RSS Feeds
Comments
Please Login/Register to post comments.
No comments have been added or approved.