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Researchers at the University of Arizona continually seek fundamental understanding in response to their own, and society's, innate curiosity. As part of that quest, faculty and their students might sometimes find it necessary or advantageous to use the services of OTT to accomplish goals, based on, or facilitated by, intellectual property, such as in the examples below.
Technology Transfer has many facets, but one particularly apt in a university environment is the use of intellectual property as a vehicle for teaching innovations, and the new fundamental knowledge incorporated in them, to organizations. For example, when OTT licenses a particular innovation to a company, that organization almost always desires continuing interaction with, and teaching by, the UA innovators to better understand the current details and take advantage of subsequent developments.
Even before an innovation is formalized and delimited by a patent or copyright, organizations often seek access to recent, as yet unpublished, UA research findings, or to tangible research materials developed in UA laboratories. OTT can help effect these transactions through Confidential Disclosure Agreements, and Material Transfer Agreements, respectively.
Since one basis of transactions intermediated by OTT is intellectual property, it is usually necessary for UA innovators to declare the nature and existence of that IP before OTT proceeds. UA's Intellectual Property Policy also states that IP is to be declared to the University when, for example, that IP arises under sponsor-supported projects, or before any discussions or actions toward commercializing the IP.
As a source of so much innovation, the University of Arizona and its faculty members are often contacted by companies seeking to sponsor research in a particular subject area. Alternately, UA researchers might be interested in collaborating on a project already underway in an industry laboratory. The University encourages these relationships, and has several offices that can help prepare and negotiate the required contractual agreements in ways that preserve the faculty member's academic scope of action.
Some UA researchers develop a passion for seeing their innovations further developed into novel products or services, and for having a personal role in the process. For these individuals, an interesting path lies ahead, OTT and the Arizona Center for Innovation (AZCI) an help with the transition from researcher to entrepreneur.
