UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON SYSTEM TO LAUNCH
CENTER FOR INDUSTRIAL PARTNERSHIPS
Strengthening Industry Ties, Expediting Commercial Applications
Goals of New Center
HOUSTON, March 30, 2007 – In a move to provide a well-defined
path from discovery to application, the University of Houston System
is launching the Center for Industrial Partnerships (CIP) to create
joint research enterprises between commercial industry and the university.
This new research and technology center will foster collaborative
efforts using UHS’ fundamental research and educational resources
to solve technological challenges for Houston’s business and
industrial communities. Its purpose is to facilitate research across
the campuses with off-campus researchers and industry and will benefit
UHS researchers, staff and students, as well as investors and entrepreneurial
companies.
Such new partnerships are necessary to assist translating basic
research to applications while increasing companies’ competitiveness
through the application of science, technology and innovation. This
approach is aligned with national trends at other leading universities
and will begin to position UHS at the forefront of collaborative
research in a key metropolitan environment.
“The center will catalyze early joint collaborations between
industry and the university system’s campuses to boost innovation
beyond proof of concept, while training the workforce of tomorrow
and reducing commercialization risks,” said John Warren, associate
vice chancellor/general counsel for research and intellectual property
and executive director of the new center.
Goals and objectives include interdisciplinary research support,
education and training, consultancy, technology transfer, an increase
in industry-sponsored research, development of long-term relationships,
increased support for colleges and departments, and greater visibility.
Resultant benefits of the CIP include linking education and research
at the undergraduate and graduate levels more closely with industrial
sponsorship and involvement, assisting in translating basic research
to applications while it is still evolving in the laboratory, and
strengthening the university’s competitiveness in basic research.
The research portfolio is structured in six areas: energy and natural
resources, materials, bio-med sciences, arts and human enrichment,
community advancement and complex systems. Partners will include
local, national and international companies and communities.
Present practice at UHS has been to develop technologies and then
try to match industry interests to what the university has to offer,
making licensing more challenging. With this center in place, the
plan shifts to gaining input from industry and UHS in tandem that
will be applied to research problems expected to result in tangible,
forecasted solutions, yielding greater financial stability and increased
ownership by industry partners.
Outreach efforts by the CIP will focus on providing resources and
services to support the Houston and global business and industrial
communities. This will involve meeting with industry representatives
and defining technology problems; identifying research needs and
appropriate UHS researchers to solve problems; providing laboratory
facilities for applied research; working with industry to develop
proposals and budgets, draft contracts, plan for technology commercialization
and manage projects; locating additional funding sources for qualifying
projects; utilizing UHS technology experts; developing technologies
to solve key industrial problems; and managing income to provide
funds for stimulating further scientific investigation and research
at the university.
“The Center for Industrial Partnerships will build value
because technologies will be incubated and developed in concert
with market-driven companies,” said Donald Birx, vice chancellor
for UHS and vice president of research for UH. “In
essence, we are recasting the intellectual property process at
UH System into a joint research enterprise with commercial industry.
The types of partnerships this center will facilitate to speed
the translation of research into commercial applications are
of the type being stressed by national research funding agencies
such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes
of Health.”
For more information on the Center for Industrial Partnerships,
visit http://www.uh.edu/cip.
ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON SYSTEM
The University of Houston System is the state’s only metropolitan
higher education system, encompassing four universities and two
multi-institution teaching centers. The universities are the University
of Houston, a nationally recognized doctoral degree-granting, comprehensive
research university; the University of Houston-Downtown, a four-year
undergraduate university beginning limited expansion into graduate
programs; and the University of Houston-Clear Lake and the University
of Houston-Victoria, both upper division and master’s-level
institutions. The centers are the UH System at Sugar Land in Fort
Bend and the UH System at Cinco Ranch. In addition, the UH System
includes KUHF-FM, Houston’s National Public Radio and classical
radio station, and KUHT-TV, the nation’s first educational
television station.
For more information about UH visit the universitys Newsroom
at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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