Where there is university research, there almost always is technology transfer. At Indiana University, the area of technology transfer is a part of the Advanced Research and Technology Institute.
"I don't know of any other university that's doing this," Dave Reece, vice president for corporate relations for ARTI, said. "We intend to go far beyond the individual faculty technology contacts."Reece is responsible for establishing the university-corporate partnerships and other relations that will provide research opportunities for faculty, income for the university, internships and permanent positions for students and strengthened competitiveness for Indiana companies.
He said ARTI is seeking common areas of interest with industry, ranging from chemical technology to workforce and management development to foreign market strategies to environmental solutions.
"We offer not only individual faculty expertise but multi-disciplinary project teams coupled with university equipment and facilities," he said. "We are looking for long-term agreements in the form of contracts and partnerships."
Reece described the partnerships as a "win-win" situation, saying, "The university will benefit from additional funded research, faculty and student learning from real world products and services, and development of enhanced intern and graduate placement opportunities. The corporation will benefit from extending its expertise, capability and capacity through university resources, and from paying for those resources only on demand."
One major project Reece is working on involves the university's cyclotron in a medical manner. "Funding for nuclear research continues to fall since the end of the Cold War," he said. "We're looking for other applications."
The new idea: the creation of proton therapy with a consortium of Midwest hospitals. He explained that the proton beam, a very precise instrument, can be used in the treatment of cancer.
"We have the capability to do this," Reece said. "And we're making progress. But it's very expensive. There are only two proton therapy systems in operation in the United States, one in California and the other in Massachusetts."
Another application of the proton beam is in the treatment of macular degeneration in the eye. This also is being explored at IU.
Reece has been in his IU position since July 1, coming from the post of executive director of the Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center. He was born and reared in the Panama Canal Zone, holds an engineering degree from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology at Terre Haute and a master's degree in public administration from IU.
At Crane, he developed an interest in economic development, creating outreach programs to help small businesses. The outreach programs extended to the schools with the creation of a high school science fair that embraced about 20 high schools.
Where there is university research, there almost always is technology transfer. At Indiana University, the area of technology transfer is a part of the Advanced Research and Technology Institute.
Julie Watson, vice president of technology transfer, said technology transfer basically is the transfer of technology from its point of origin to the point of its application. One common form is the student, she said, explaining that the technology -- information -- is transferred from the teacher to the student, who then applies it.
But sometimes it is more complex, involving the transfer of research discoveries to the commercial sector for development into new products for the public good.
"We're here because we can make discoveries that will benefit the public," Watson said. "The university creates and disseminates knowledge; technology transfer is part of the dissemination process. But it's a big responsibility; often, getting the knowledge to the public involves commercialization, and then it must be protected by patents."
Patenting worthwhile research discoveries increases the chances that they will be developed for the public good, not just recorded in the scientific literature. Patent protection is a needed incentive for a commercial partner to spend time, effort and money in developing an embryonic research discovery into a marketable product.
At IU, the Office of Technology Transfer is charged with identifying those research discoveries that have the potential to be developed into commercial products.
It protects those discoveries through patents, and it works with inventors and commercial partners to transfer them to the public through the marketplace.
Former Indiana Sen. Birch Bayh and former Kansas Sen. Robert Dole played key roles in Congress in the area of technology transfer. The Bayh-Dole Act, enacted in 1980, created a uniform patent policy among the many federal agencies that fund research, enabling small businesses and nonprofit organizations, including universities, to retain title to materials and products they invent under federal funding.
Watson, a native of Rochester, Minn., is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Coe College with a bachelor's degree in psychology and biology. Her master's degree in biopsychology was attained at the Johns Hopkins University and she did advanced graduate work in neuroscience at Northwestern University.
She came to IU about six months ago, after five years as patent administrator and director of the Technology Transfer Service at Wake Forest University. She also was assistant dean for research administration at the Wake Forest medical school. From 1987 to 1991, she was director of the Office of Technology Liaison at the University of Iowa.
Indiana University's Industrial Research Liaison Program (IRLP) was formed in 1986 as a part of the university's research and development operation in the Office of Research and the University Graduate School (RUGS).
Today it is a part of ARTI. But it still has the same goals: utilizing the resources and expertise available at the university to assist Indiana businesses in commercializing new products and increasing their competitiveness.
The division is headed by Sid Johnson, vice president of industrial research and director of economic development.
Since the inception of the program in 1986, 71 organizations have received grants worth $41.5 million with IRLP assistance.
Funding for IRLP comes from three sources, Johnson said -- the State of Indiana, the university and the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
"Nationally, about one in 10 or 12 proposals is funded by the federal government," he said. "Our clients' rate is closer to one in three, which indicates some good ideas are being proposed by Indiana companies."
IRLP has three components:
Viki Prescott, the newly named director of licensing and trademarks for ARTI may be in a new ball park, but she's still playing the same game.
Prescott has substantial trademark licensing experience, having worked for three years with Mattel Inc., drafting and negotiating domestic and international merchandising licenses for such Mattel toys as Barbie, Hot Wheels and Lil' Miss.
She recently joined the ARTI family after two years' experience with Resort Condominiums International Inc., where she was the senior attorney responsible for all of RCI's trademark registration, licensing and enforcement worldwide.
At ARTI, Prescott will be responsible for the successful development, promotion, marketing, protection and usage of all IU names, trademarks, logos, symbols and other recognized entities of IU, both domestically and internationally.
She is a 1985 graduate of the IU School of Business, with a bachelor's degree in quantitative business analysis, and operations and systems management. She earned her law degree at Southern Methodist University in 1989.
One of her first tasks at IU will be to draft a business plan, now underway, to create the infrastructure needed in her department and to develop an aggressive, customer-oriented marketing plan. She will be exploring Internet possibilities, co-promotions with other companies, expanding product lines and developing new logos.
"We want to raise the awareness of IU, especially internationally, and to attract students here, both from the United States and abroad," Prescott said.
"I see the possibility of a lot of working relationships with businesses promoting their products and the IU identity," she said, adding that she will be working directly with manufacturers to identify products that lend themselves to marketing with IU identifiers, and helping firms develop domestic and international markets for licensed products and sponsoring activities.
Larry Onesti has been on the job as acting director of the Indiana University Research Park only since the first of the year. Not long enough, he says, to have acquired a full-blown job description.
But he knows what his goal is: to mate interested people and companies with the facilities and the personal expertise of IU as a way of stimulating their businesses.
The research park is a part of the umbrella organization called ARTI that IU has formed in the Showers Complex on North Morton Street in Bloomington.
Onesti said eight companies already are located in the IU Research Park, bringing total occupancy to 75 percent. In addition, another six companies have shown considerable interest in the research park, and negotiations with them are underway.
Onesti is an associate professor of geology. He teaches environmental geology, which deals with man-made hazards, such as toxic waste and radioactive waste, and natural hazards, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes and landslides.
"We're interested in high technology," he said. "But equally important, I believe, are IU's strengths in the languages, the arts and humanities, and area studies."
He said there is a lot of faculty knowledge on such areas as the Middle East, Central Europe, Latin America and the Pacific Rim countries. This knowledge of those areas' economies and cultures could be valuable to a firm considering doing business with those countries.
Firms interested in digital high technology and multimedia digital interactive technology for educational purposes are of great interest to the research park.
Onesti, a native of Chicago, holds three degrees -- a bachelor's from Northwestern University, a master's from Michigan State University and a doctorate from Wisconsin University. He has been at IU since 1976.
Albert Ruesink, professor of plant science in the IU Department of Biology, said ARTI not only can help in evaluating proposals from outside the university but also can generate research ideas that would interest commercial firms.
ARTI will play a major role in putting faculty expertise at the disposal of companies outside the university's boundaries.
"In other words, ARTI can broker information in both directions," Ruesink said, "creating opportunities for the faculty to do research and creative projects that otherwise might not be possible" Further, he said, faculty should be assisted in developing their own intellectual properties, with appropriate financial rewards.
Ruesink said it is important that no unusual restrictions be placed on the research done through ARTI. "I lean heavily on the side of openness," he said.
"There should be no secrecy connected with research," he continued. "This is an academic institution, and I think that the research done here should be public. Several of us on the board of directors are watch-dogging this. We want this to be a positive experience, not negative."
IU, with its strong science departments, has much to offer companies seeking research expertise and facilities, Ruesink said, adding, "It's difficult to foresee what projects might generate interest, but it seems clear that many should be interfaces with the management skills in the School of Business."
Ruesink graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in botany, with high honors and distinction, and was named to Phi Beta Kappa. He attained a doctorate in biology at Harvard University.
He is one of four biologists serving on the ARTI board of directors. The others are Fred Cate, Sandra Winicur and Richard Peterson.
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