Northern Arizona University (NAU) does not have its own tech transfer office, but that’s not stopping it from taking aggressive steps to market its IP: It has hired local business-services provider Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies (NACET) to help develop and commercialize more of its faculty’s inventions. NAU also hopes the partnership will help drive local economic development, particularly in the life sciences, by forming spinout companies that could then be housed in a new incubator NACET is opening in Flagstaff, where both organizations are located.

NAU and NACET have established an informal entity called NAU Ventures, which will handle most aspects of technology transfer for the university. According to Laura Huenneke, VP of research at the school, NAU Ventures will initially assess any invention disclosure that comes from an NAU researcher, and will make a recommendation to the university as to whether the technology has commercial promise. NAU had already tried partnering with an organization in another part of the state, but Huenneke says this initiative has greater potential. “They are located right here in Flagstaff; they are able to become very well acquainted with our faculty and research efforts; and they are able to participate on a very frequent basis in, for example, entrepreneurship activities aimed at our students and faculty,” she explains.

For inventions that are deemed marketable, NAU Ventures will try to connect the technology with appropriate industrial partners or investors. For innovations that still need development, NAU Ventures will work with university researchers or other partners to help mature the technology. “It will still be a university decision as to whether we want to pay for a patent application, for instance, or pay for patent counsel,” Huenneke says. “Meanwhile, the NAU Venture staff will interact with faculty that might want to take their idea to the next step. This group can help them figure out where to get some private funding, which is something my office is not really good at.” Go to: Biotech Transfer Week

Posted September 30th, 2008 under Intellectual Property Marketing

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