Outlines next steps for university collaboration
(COLUMBUS, Ohio)—Ohio Lt. Governor Jon Husted today outlined some of the successes achieved during the first year of the Ohio IP Promise. The initiative, launched by the Lt. Governor in 2019, seeks to make Ohio’s universities hubs for innovation and entrepreneurialism by streamlining the process for guiding intellectual property through to commercialization. The Ohio IP Promise is operated jointly by InnovateOhio and the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
Since its launch in 2019, the Ohio IP Promise has enabled the University of Cincinnati to generate a record 400 percent increase in startups spun out of UC intellectual property last year and a 1,000 percent increase this year. The Ohio State University now has more than 100 active startup companies in its portfolio, with the IP Promise making a direct and positive impact through the transparency, speed, and ease of engagement that is has driven.
The changes made because of the IP Promise also helped quickly facilitate a recent deal in COVID-19 detection with the University of Dayton Research Institute. The licensee noted that the IP Promise helped the deal move along quickly by reducing risk, because of the transparency and trust created by the initiative.
“If we want Ohio to be the most innovative, entrepreneurial state in the Midwest, we have to make sure our state is a magnet for research, capital and talent, and by signing on to the IP Promise, our state’s universities are playing a greater role in making that happen,” said Lt. Governor Jon Husted. “As we move forward and grow this collaboration, I’m confident we will continue to see more invention disclosures and business startups coming out of our universities, and see that those institutions will be better positioned to attract world-class talent to Ohio.”
The Lt. Governor announced three new areas of collaboration for IP Promise commercialization efforts:
- Establish a statewide inter-institutional agreement. These agreements are used when two or more institutions (example: the University of Toledo and the University of Akron) jointly own an invention and wish to work together to commercialize it. These agreements define responsibilities for marketing, lead for licensing, and proportional costs and royalties.
- Establish a collection of institutional entrepreneurial resources. Collecting and cataloging entrepreneurial resources across the IUC provides an opportunity to share and leverage best practices.
- Establish agreement among IUC members to use consistent non-financial starting terms. Each institution’s license may contain different terms and conditions irrespective of technology. By standardizing the terms, partners would be able to process commercialization deals more quickly.
Moving forward, the IP Promise will track five benchmarks to further measure the initiative’s success in promoting innovation, including number of invention disclosures, the number of technologies licensed, the number of startups launched, the total amount of portfolio funding, and the net promoter score to measure stakeholder satisfaction. These numbers will be updated annually using five-year moving averages to show up and down trends.
“I am pleased to see all the IP Promise has accomplished in only its first year,” said ODHE Chancellor Randy Gardner. “Innovation and collaboration are among the top priorities of the DeWine-Husted Administration, and I know our universities will continue to find innovative ways to work together through the IP Promise to lead Ohio forward.”
“The Ohio IP Promise has been a critical catalyst for change, improving how we transfer discoveries from the university into the market where they can make a positive impact on people’s lives,” said Kevin Taylor, associate vice president for technology commercialization at The Ohio State University. “Aligned around the new metrics, Ohio IP Promise universities will gain insights into what’s working, what’s not, and how we can improve together. This will benefit Ohio’s citizens, its innovative businesses, and the state economy.”
Ohio’s IP Promise, launched on September 6, 2019, brings together the state’s higher education institutions to provide a uniform, transparent, and easy process for technology commercialization for the benefit of students, faculty, and investors.
IP Promise is one of several initiatives established under Lt. Governor Husted through his role as Director of InnovateOhio, an office of the Governor, launched by the DeWine-Husted Administration to help make Ohio the most innovative, creative, and entrepreneurial state in the Midwest.
Over the past 11 months, IP Promise has worked with the Technology Transfer Officers Council (TTOC), representing the technology commercialization offices at Ohio’s 14 public universities, to establish metrics and continuous improvement efforts for the initiative.
On August 13, InnovateOhio and IP Promise partnered with NASAiTech for Ignite the Night Ohio, https://www.nasaitech.org/ignite-the-night , a pitch competition. Featured technologies included a portable nuclear reactor from The Ohio State University and an advanced bone fracture risk measurement technology from Ohio University.
The Ohio IP Promise was developed in consultation with the Inter-University Council (IUC) of Ohio. Each member institution has agreed to use the Ohio IP Promise as the starting point for its own commercialization process.