Even though we are well into the summer, I wanted to keep you updated on a number of activities going on at AUTM.
First, by now you have seen Pam York’s resignation as AUTM VP for Finance. The AUTM Board wishes Pam well in her new endeavors and looks forward to working with her in some future capacity. In the meantime, President-Elect Todd Sherer is up to speed on Finance duties as well as also replacing Pam on the AUTM Foundation Board.
Second, I want to thank Alan Bentley for blogging to remind the membership of upcoming nominations. If you, or anyone you know, is interested in serving AUTM in a Board capacity, now is the time to review the job descriptions and get your nominations into the Nominating Committee. As you know, this profession means a lot to me; I have been very fortunate to have great mentors as I grew up in the profession. This is my way, and your way potentially, to give back to this wonderful profession and group of peers.
Our profession can be incredibly confusing to those not directly involved. I have been working with the AUTM Board to help educate others and, as the AUTM Board has been doing for some time, to put out the correct facts. You may have read a recent Washington Post article “Innovation’s golden opportunity” in which Vivek Wadhwa opined that the translation of university research into useful products benefitting the taxpaying American public has largely failed. You can read my response, "University/Industry Partnerships Work: Don’t Kill the Golden Goose," at IPWatchdog.com.
We have continued to network with other associations. In May, Vicki Loise, AUTM Executive Director, and I traveled to Stockholm to attend the ASTP meeting. It was quite interesting to share notes with my new counterpart, Anders Haugland of BTO in Norway. One of the highlights was a “debate” between Kevin Cullen and Lesa Mitchell of the Kauffman Foundation. From ASTP, I traveled to attend the CIP Forum on “the New Wealth of Nations” in Gotheberg. I participated in two forums, one on intellectual property in the knowledge economy with Dan McCurdy, CEO, Founder and Chairman, PatentFreedom, Kasim Alfalahi, CIPO, Ericsson, Ruud Peters, CEO of Philips Intellectual Property & Standards and Susanne Ås Sivborg, Director General and President of the Swedish Patent and Registration Office; the second to discuss university technology transfer models with my colleagues Laurent Mieville, Head of Technology Transfer, University of Geneva and Paul van Dun, General Manager, K.U. Leuven Research & Development. While we may all speak different languages and come from different cultures, we seem to all be working to translate our innovations to the marketplace for public benefit. It is gratifying to see our commonalities and also to trade ideas for improvements and best practices.
After months of planning with APLU and AAU, in June I co-moderated with Prem Paul, VC for Research and Economic Development. The meeting was held the day before APLU’s Council on Research Policy and Graduate Education (CRPGE) meeting. The group of about 20 spent an informal day discussing how the university research enterprise, and with it our offices, is now broadening to that of economic development and entrepreneurship and how we might rise to the challenge of the resultant increased visibility and expectations. We spent much of our time discussing definitions of mission, and the need for clear metrics for managing expectations. The group agreed that universities are just one set of players in the innovation ecosystem and that we all must work together to develop both broad and targeted communications to the public (industry, alumni, local and regional communities, etc.) about our successes. In the end the group also agreed that these small discussions were valuable enough to look into convening such sessions again, potentially as add-ons to other related meetings. More details on that to come.
The Board met in July and we will post a summary of the Board discussions soon.
There is still a healthy debate among members about patent reform. Be sure to watch your inbox for more information within the coming days.