Small Company Entry into the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership

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In December 2006, the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR) launched a new organization, the University-Industry-Demonstration Partnership (UIDP). The mission of the UIDP is to nourish and expand collaborative partnerships between university and industry in the United States. Recent studies show the inability of U.S. universities to quickly arrive at agreement on intellectual property (IP) terms with their industry sponsors puts them at a competitive disadvantage compared to foreign universities. Industry-sponsored research is stagnant in the U.S. and booming elsewhere. The significance of the problem is not lost on the universities, 49 of which have signed up as members of the UIDP. This award will successfully brokering a holistic solution for the nation by proactively engaging small companies in UIDP discussions, alongside the 18 (and growing) number of large companies. Small/startup companies are a primary engine of U.S. economic growth, and a non-trivial outcome of university research. However, the price of UIDP membership may be a barrier for small companies, which consider memberships generally as a budget luxury. This award will provide funds to incentivize those companies for involvement in the UIDP, so that the solution set arrived at by UIDP members will serve all of the U.S. interests: universities, large companies, and small companies alike.