{"id":24795,"date":"2010-11-16T08:20:23","date_gmt":"2010-11-16T13:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=24795"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:39:57","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:39:57","slug":"tuning-up-uconn-as-an-engine-of-economic-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/11\/tuning-up-uconn-as-an-engine-of-economic-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuning Up UConn as an Engine of Economic Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

The process of turning academic research into marketable technologies has just become easier for faculty on the Storrs campus.<\/p>\n

\"<p>From<\/a>
CSTC licensing directors, from left, Mansoor Khan, Donna Cyr, and Gregory Gallo, outside the Bronwell Building where their new office is located. Photo by Jessica Tommaselli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a move to expand its presence in the hub of one of UConn\u2019s high-tech neighborhoods, the University\u2019s Center for Science and Technology Commercialization (CSTC) \u2013 which helps researchers, faculty, and inventors protect their inventions and turn them into viable businesses \u2013 opened the doors to a new office last month, in Room 203 of the Arthur B. Bronwell Building.<\/p>\n

Bronwell, located directly across from the Castleman Building and next to the United Technology Corp. Building, is part of a complex that includes most of the engineering school\u2019s classrooms and labs. It is also near to the Gant Building, which houses physics, math, and science, and the Institute of Materials Science; the Pharmacy and Biology Building; the Torrey Life Sciences Building; and the Chemistry and Pathobiology buildings.<\/p>\n

Announcing the CSTC\u2019s new office via an e-mail message to the academic community, Suman Singha, UConn\u2019s vice president for research, said its purpose is to better serve an area of the campus that has shown strong growth in technology-based research and economic development initiatives. Noting that intellectual property is a University priority, he added: \u201cI hope that by having technology transfer resources close by we will increase the prospects for faculty conversations about issues that may provide a foundation for future opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

UConn\u2019s push into \u201ctech transfer,\u201d barely 10 years old, appears to be working. In a letter to the University community last month, President Philip Austin noted that since the University entered this arena in 1999, \u201cthus far the results have included 202 patents issued, 161 technology licenses and options, and 34 start-up companies. We can account for the creation of nearly 200 jobs in FY2010 through our commercialization programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are clearly in the foundation stages of an enterprise that may play a critical role in the coming years,\u201d Austin added.<\/p>\n

Rita Zangari, interim director of the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC), which oversees the CSTC, notes that in general, \u201cit is very difficult to transition research findings to a marketable product.\u201d OTC\u2019s approach, she adds, reflects the fact that universities are placing greater emphasis on commercializing their inventions, and licensing officials are taking steps to ensure that faculty members understand the process and have access to a range of services to support their interest in commercialization.<\/p>\n

Under the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act, universities have the right to own and commercialize such inventions, Zangari explains. Most UConn professors recognize that an invention they develop based on research emanating from sponsored grants or with significant use of campus facilities belong to the University, and UConn shares any profits from those discoveries with the inventors and their departments.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of our invention disclosures, patent filings, and business development projects come from faculty in the science, technology, and engineering areas,\u201d Zangari adds, noting that while most faculty and graduate students in these fields may know about the ins and outs of commercializing university inventions, CSTC staff want to be close to the faculty and accessible should questions arise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be closely involved and closely aligned with our inventors,\u201d Zangari says. \u201cThese are the people we want to talk to. Hopefully closer proximity will give our licensing directors regular access to faculty in their labs, so when someone has an idea, they can easily find an opportunity to discuss it and learn about the potential service offerings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donna Cyr, CSTC\u2019s director of technology licensing in the physical sciences, says monitoring is part of the job. Licensing directors work as \u201charvesters\u201d of new invention ideas by scouring university labs or by tracking UConn publications \u201cfor ideas that trigger a meeting with an investigator,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Mun Y. Choi, dean of the School of Engineering, says the opening of the CSTC Bronwell office is a good thing for both faculty researchers and the University.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think having a permanent presence here with high-level CSTC staff underscores the relevance with which the leading players in tech transfer view the Storrs campus and its research community,\u201d Choi says. \u201cIt offers our inventors and scientists an unprecedented opportunity to see their ideas become realities faster than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n

To contact CSTC licensing directors at Bronwell, please call 860-486-8330.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A program that helps turn research into marketable products has a new office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[46],"class_list":["post-24795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 00:20:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24795"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37054,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24795\/revisions\/37054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24795"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=24795"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=24795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}