Oregon Health & Science University’s Technology Transfer and Business Development office had a groundbreaking 2011-2012 fiscal year, establishing new records in how OHSU is successfully bridging the gap between promising research and public benefit.

OHSU’s TTBD office supports the university’s research community by collaborating with industry to facilitate research, linking private business with OHSU technologies and expertise, and by licensing promising discoveries and creating new companies.

In the 2011-2012 fiscal year, OHSU’s TTBD office:

• Completed 81 industry-sponsored research agreements that brought $12.8 million in awards to researchers. The $12.8 million figure was the highest ever for OHSU researchers. The average funding per research agreement has nearly doubled from two years ago.
• Established a new record for granted patents with 33 patents issued, 20 of them in the United States.
• Executed a record 144 “non-disclosure agreements” with private companies, more than double the number from two years ago. Non-disclosure agreements are important because they signal the beginning of new OHSU collaborations with industry, and highlight private companies and other entities wanting to discuss important projects with OHSU and its researchers.

“We’re excited that our work with OHSU researchers and the private sector is reaping dividends for both sides,” said J. Timothy Stout, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., vice president for Technology Transfer and Business Development. “And we’re excited for what this kind of work means for the larger picture — turning scientific discoveries and expertise into products that benefit the larger public. These successes spring from the expertise and passion of OHSU researchers.”

Stout said the OHSU TTBD office also completed 56 commercialization agreements in 2011-2012, a 12 percent increase over the 2010-2011 fiscal year and a 17 percent increase from two years ago. Commercialization agreements include license and option agreements under which the owner of a technology grants rights to another party to use or evaluate the technology.

The TTBD office also completed a record 553 "material transfer" agreements in 2011-2012, a 54 percent increase from two years ago. Material transfer agreements are required when important research materials are transferred from another institution or entity for use by OHSU researchers, or transferred from OHSU to another institution. They are an important barometer of OHSU researchers collaborating with other scientists and institutions around the world to advance scientific knowledge. The office also completed 35 research collaboration agreements with other research institutions, a 17 percent increase from last year and a 150 percent increase from two years ago.

The TTBD office received 117 new inventions from OHSU researchers in 2011-2012, some of which may eventually turn into granted patents and out-licensed technologies. OHSU researchers have submitted an average of 120 new inventions per year for the last three years. Many of these have come from new innovators; of the 209 OHSU employees associated with the new inventions during the past year, more than 50 percent are first-time innovators.