IU sets record for number of licensing disclosures

Friday marked the end of a special fiscal year for the IU Research and Technology Corporation, the nonprofit agency that works to facilitate collaboration between IU and the business and industry sector. Over the course of the last 12 months, IU researchers have set an IU record of 257 licensing disclosures, a two-fold increase alone from last year's amount of 127. The researchers at the IU School of Medicine in Indianapolis significantly led with 165 disclosures, followed by the Bloomington campus with 57 and IU-Purdue University Indianapolis with 35. \nDisclosures are confidential reports made by IU researchers when they feel they have something commercially useful, said IURTC Vice President of Technology Transfer Jack H. Pincus. In disclosures, researchers detail what their research is and provide suggestions for practical applications. Disclosures are also the first step in the process of turning that research into patented, licensed technology. \nIURTC President and CEO Mark Long said in a press release that he credits the corporation's "crack staff" for actively working with IU researchers to seek out technologies rather than "letting technologies come to them." He also noted the work of Clinical Director for Life Sciences Initiatives at the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Robert McDonald for his outreach efforts to inform IU researchers about the University's resources and how they can be used. \nBesides the record amount of research disclosures, its real significance is found in what these disclosures are, and what they mean for IU, the state of Indiana and the general population. \nThe immediate significance of the fiscal year's disclosure amount comes from the fact that while not all disclosures will become licensed usable technologies, some will, and naturally more disclosures result in potentially more licenses. For the researchers and the University, this translates into funding for further research and development. For the state of Indiana and the general public, IURTC believes this will translate into growth in Indiana's technology sector, potentially leading to job creation and economic growth. \nThis facet of the University is quite compelling when considering the nature of the relationship between research and development, its sources of revenue and the economy. \n"Generally more research is done in the school of medicine than other colleges," Pincus said . "(Partly because) a lot of research is funded by the federal government."\nIn addition to the federal government, revenue for research and development comes from foundations and private companies, Pincus said. \nThis year's record amount of disclosures comes one year after a different IURTC record. In the 2004 fiscal year, IURTC earned about $8.6 million in licensing revenue. IU fully intends for these trends to continue. \nWith last month's creation of the position of Translational Science Officer to identify licensable research and technologies from IU's eight campuses, IU, with its partner BioCrossroads, indicated that they not only want to continue these trends, but also to enhance them.