Making Technology Transfer a Business
By The Business Press, Ontario, Calif.
May 7–Tim Gerrity has plans. The business and research expert wants to guide a university technology transfer office to financial independence by finding additional customers.
Gerrity began his new job April 1 as director of the Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization at California State University, San Bernardino. He replaces Stu Gordon, who retired after leading the program since 2003.
Gerrity’s first goals include creating a business plan for the organization, now funded by one U.S. Department of Defense grant program. He wants to define its products and services, identify customers and chart a course of action, he said.
“We need a business model where we can be completely self-sustaining,” he said. “This has to be treated like a business.”
Future plans may involve marketing the transfer office’s services to large companies that may want to spin out inventions no longer in sync with corporate business goals. The companies might pay the technology transfer office to commercialize the technology through licensing deals with other companies, by helping a startup develop the intellectual property or through other means.
The transfer office first needs to take an inventory of the industries in the Inland Empire, identifying the types and sizes of businesses and primary technologies involved, he said.
Gerrity is talking with the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship about collaborating on education for entrepreneurs and companies. For example, they may create a program similar to workshops Gerrity designed in Massachusetts for injection molding firms. The program taught executives how to register with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The companies could then use their FDA registrations to bid for work from medical device manufacturers.
An important role of the Office of Technology Transfer “is to be a key player in regional economic development and do these things that can lead to more jobs,” Gerrity said.
“Any company can go out and hire a marketing firm. What we can provide is a sweep of services, beyond what we’re paid for,” he said.
The technology transfer office has one funded program by which it pays expenses and provides business development grants to qualified technology startups around the region and the country.
The Office of Naval Research, a U.S. Department of Defense agency in Arlington,Va., provides annual funding for the program, which operates as the Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technology, or CCAT, at the Office of Technology Transfer.
Cal State San Diego operates another advanced technology center funded by the Navy. It opened in 2001 and the Cal State San Bernardino center opened in 2002. The two centers collectively function as CCAT-Southern California.
The programs dole out $75,000 to $100,000 annually to qualified technology startups to develop technologies of interest to the defense department. The programs also help federal labs commercialize inventions.
The program differs from other federal efforts that focus exclusively on technology development; CCAT program advisors help entrepreneurs write business plans and conduct marketing surveys to propel inventions beyond military uses to commercial applications. Startups retain rights to their own intellectual property.
Cal State, San Bernardino’s office of technology transfer had 39 technologies in its advanced technology program portfolio as of June 30, according to its 2005-06 annual report. Of those, 11 involve companies and universities located in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, including GEM Power LLC in Redlands, Kelly Space & Technology Inc. in San Bernardino, ISCA Technologies Inc. in Riverside, Nova R&D Inc. in Riverside and the University of California, Riverside.
The technology transfer office also hosts and maintains the Active Capital Web site, an online method for entrepreneurs and accredited investors to find each other. Under state and U.S. Security and Exchange Commission rulings, the site allows registration of securities for sale, up to $5 million a year. The office does not currently receive funding for maintaining Active Capital, said Jeff Thompson, the university’s associate provost for research.
The technology transfer office in March 2006 moved into its new, $937,988 building next to the Foundation for California State University, San Bernardino. The technology transfer office operates under the auspices of the foundation. The U.S. Small Business Administration provided funding for the building. The office will hold a ribbon cutting for the building and publicly introduce Gerrity May 23.
A broad background
Gerrity arrived at Cal State San Bernardino from Massachusetts, where he served as founder, president and chief executive officer of Noventus Medical LLC in Worcester. Gerrity dispersed his share of the company to his partners to take the job directing the technology transfer program.
Noventus helps medical technology startups find funding and other resources. The company helped a recent client, Touchpoint Surgical, conduct marketing studies, create business plans and presentations and seek potential investors. Touchpoint invented a suturing device that mounts on a surgeon’s fingertip.
Gerrity, a published physicist, brings business expertise, research and academic experience to the post. His resume includes serving as executive director of the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center at Georgetown University School of Medicine. He managed $100 million in research programs for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and shared responsibility for a $1 billion annual national health research program, a Cal State San Bernardino release said.. The New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of Applied Physiology have published his articles.
Gerrity has worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Albert Karnig, Cal State, San Bernardino’s president, initiated the technology transfer program in 1998 to secure federal grants and venture capital for commercializing campus research. In August 2002, the program, then called the Research, Development and Technology Transfer office, announced the university’s first licensing deal. National Instruments Corp. in Austin, Texas, licensed a computer-based electronics measurements system developed by Cal State physics professors Paul Dixon and Tim Usher. The laptop system, NI Elvis, used National Instrument’s LabVIEW software for testing electronic devices in labs.
The university has one full patent and one provisional patent connected to the NI Elvis technology, Thompson said.
“The Office of Technology Transfer is planning to offer its services for Cal State campuses in terms of university technology transfer needs,” Thompson said.
Traditional university technology transfer programs usually staff licensing officers, handle invention disclosures and pay patenting costs. They negotiate licensing deals with industry that result in royalties for inventors and universities.
The CCAT program provides “zero-stage” funding to entrepreneurs, a stage following initial investments from “friends, family and fools,” and often the most difficult funds to acquire, Gerrity said. Only the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University and other research heavy hitters can afford to provide such funding, and they provide it only to faculty and students, he said.
It’s all in the mix
Cal State, San Bernardino conducted a nationwide search over 18 months before selecting Gerrity for the job, Thompson said. “There’s a very limited pool of applicants that have the experience in technology transfer and especially in commercialization,” he said.
Ideal candidates for technology transfer director positions typically have an eclectic mix of business, academic and legal experience, said Patrick L. Jones, director of the Office of Technology Transfer at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Jones is also president of the Association of University Technology Managers in Northbrook, Ill. The organization offers training and networking. It tracks licensing deals, research and development expenditures, new products, spin-off companies and other activity at tech transfer offices around the United States and Canada. The association has 3,600 members in 45 countries.
Technology transfer directors typically balance different business models, Jones said. Directors also act as ambassadors to the business community and other groups, all of whom have different expectations of technology transfer programs, he said.
Finding individuals with a breadth of experience is sometimes difficult, he said. And recruiting may be hampered by positions often far-flung among a few universities and research institutions. This requires relocation for directors who want to change jobs and stay in the industry.
“People will migrate out of the profession. They will go into the private sector or switch to something else,” Jones said.
During fiscal year 2005, 151 research organizations reported 527 new products made available to the public, according to a licensing survey summary of the Association of University Technology Managers. Survey respondents also reported 3,641 new products released to the public since 1988 as a result of academic technology transfer efforts.
There were 28,349 active licenses; 4,932 new licenses were signed; and 628 new spin-off companies were created during 2005, according to the survey report.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Business Press, Ontario, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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