Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties Inc.

Goals and Objectives Achieved for FY 2011

• Establish a technology commercialization training program for Virginia Tech faculty members and begin a special outreach program, including attendance at industry market conferences, in areas ripe for increasing Virginia Tech inventions. Goal Accomplishment: Making Connections was established as a monthly technology transfer educational and issues exploration program focused on key elements of technology commercialization for faculty and students. We held the program at various venues on campus and the subject areas and speakers were well-received. VTIP licensing associates made new inroads with potential company licensees by attending focused industry conferences, company matching events, and regional technology showcases.

• Increase VTIP reserves to $1 million in positive revenue by the end of FY 2011 to enable fully funding the current Virginia Tech subsidy of VTIP. Goal Accomplishment: We were not able to meet this goal as several licenses experienced unforeseen problems in manufacturing and regulatory approvals. Positive indicators for FY 2012 include a manufacturing restart and rebranding of one existing product, an introduction of a new product in the home improvement market, and expected FDA approval of a third product, all based on existing VTIP licensed technologies.

• Focus on development of "automation tools" to streamline areas that require the most work. Improve the ability of faculty members and potential licensees to better interact with us by providing the right information the first time by improving processes, websites, databases, and other resources. Goal Accomplishment: We completed automation tools primarily around generating notices and reminders. These automated emails and letters are generated using our Inteum C/S database, which we use to inform faculty and administrators of patent prosecution deadlines, reports, invention disclosure follow-up, and other matters in the technology transfer process.

Additional Accomplishments

• VTIP has developed Requests for Commercialization in selected areas reflecting market needs matched to available technology to maximize the return on licensing with timely, productive outreach initiatives.

• Research with near-term commercial potential (i.e., three to five years to market), has been identified and targeted for support. Such projects have been focused on development through identification of "market gaps" that can be filled with targeted innovations developed by faculty members. An example is work being done with Wireless@VT with next-generation software radio.

Challenges and Opportunities

Technology transfer involves many more people than just an inventor and a licensing associate. By engaging more people in the process, technology transfer must integrate more fully into the university and business communities. Technology transfer is also a continuation of the research process and is an important way researchers create impact beyond the completion of a grant or publication of a paper. Finally, innovation in technology transfer means introducing new ways of doing things in organizational, professional, communications, and financial realms. Taken together, these three facets of commercialization lead us to focus on funding for bridging the gap in technology commercialization.

A significant challenge to commercialization is the difficulty in attracting research funding at early and unproven phases of product development. There is a real and persistent funding gap between the end of the discovery phase and early validation for potential commercialization.

The following are some broad consensus challenges where targeted efforts by VTIP may prove beneficial to commercialize specific technology areas of strength at Virginia Tech:

• Building mutual understanding and trust between industry partners and Virginia Tech researchers is necessary to promote effective communication and subsequent collaboration. Industry and the university have two diverse cultures that must be reconciled for effective partnerships to be established.

• The costs associated with translational research are significant and may not be well identified at the outset, leading to the need for augmented funding at this stage. In addition, the lag between discovery science and its practical development is often long, with practitioners and consumers becoming increasingly impatient with the slow innovation-to-market cycle.

• Key hurdles in commercializing products include regulatory pathways, intellectual property issues, obtaining adequate funding – particularly in early and mid-phase, and the cost to get to market versus a realistic market size.

VTIP is playing an important and pivotal role in facilitating technology transfer and commercialization research.