THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505110007
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
A recent study of 40 research universities in 14 Southern states showed that the vast majority of money being made from the professors' discoveries is being made in other parts of the nation.
While Stanford University discoveries benefit Silicon Valley companies nearby, the fruits of Southern brainpower are being harvested by companies elsewhere.
On average, only 3 percent of the royalties paid for a Southern university's discoveries came from companies within the same state as the university, and only 29 percent of the royalties came from companies somewhere in the South.
Thanks to the Center for Innovative Technology, a not-for-profit organization in Northern Virginia funded by the General Assembly, the record in Virginia is much better and rapidly improving.
Since 1989, CIT has granted 70 licenses to companies for inventions at Virginia universities; 32 of the licenses, virtually half, went to companies within Virginia.
In the first six months of the current fiscal year, CIT granted 12 licenses to 11 companies to develop and commercialize inventions made at Virginia universities, and 10 of the licenses went to Virginia companies - a whopping 83 percent.
In many cases, CIT has helped start companies in Virginia to use discoveries from local universities, rather than sell licenses for the discoveries to companies out of the state or country. In fact, since late 1993, CIT's main purpose has been to use the discoveries of Virginia universities to promote economic growth within the commonwealth.
The new report is titled ``Benchmarking University-Industry Technology Transfer in the South: 1993-94 Data,'' and it was compiled by The Southern Technology Council, a nonprofit organization formed in 1986 to promote the transfer of technology from universities to business. Jim Guy Tucker, governor of Arkansas, is the council chairman. Academics and ex-academics from 14 states are involved. The National Science Foundation partially funded the study.
The report says two-thirds of 47 licenses granted through CIT during the study period went to start-up companies. And it says, ``Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology seemed to be accomplishing its mission of seeding technology-based enterprise growth in the state. Of a six-figure royalty revenue flow, 74.24 percent was from in-state licensees.''
The report is terrific news for CIT, which barely escaped with its life earlier this year. A government-reform commission had recommended eliminating it, but Gov. George Allen and the General Assembly approved almost all of CIT's $8.2 million budget request.
Louis Berneman, CIT director of licensing and business development, said universities began about 1986 to try to protect and commercialize research results.
While CIT seeks to create jobs, companies and high-tech competitiveness for Virginia, Berneman said, the universities seek closer ties with industry, motivation for their researchers and research funding from industry.
Universities don't make a lot of money from their discoveries, Berneman said. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with an annual research budget of about $700 million, received less than $20 million in license fees last year, he said.
But the best researchers are more motivated to work, and more likely to remain with their schools, if their discoveries go beyond the laboratory and make a difference in the world. Also, the professors get a percentage of the royalties from their work.
And when the fruits of the professors' research lead to new jobs and companies within the state, everybody wins. by CNB