Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Cape Cod’s WHOI, RTDC form tech transfer deal

By Brendan Lynch

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Regional Technology Development Corp. (RTDC) of Cape Cod report they’ve formed an official technology transfer and entrepreneurial services agreement intended to accelerate the commercialization of WHOI technology.

Under the agreement, WHOI will outsource its licensing activities to the RTDC.

The organizations said the goals for the agreement are to commercialize more WHOI projects, speed up the licensing of WHOI technologies, create companies based on WHOI technology and partner with commercial enterprises and other research institutions more often.

Last year, RTDC CEO Robert Curtis worked with the state Senate on drafting an amendment to the $1 billion life sciences initiative bill that ensured the Cape in general, and the Marine Biological Laboratory and WHOI in particular, received a share of the funds.

Founded in 2007, the Woods Hole-based RTDC is a nonprofit organization looking to commercialize technology from WHOI and MBL, and promote the Cape and South Coast areas as a viable home for technology companies.

Falmouth-based WHOI is a private, independent organization dedicated to marine research, engineering and higher education. WHOI was founded in 1930.