Office of Innovation Advancement and Commercialization offering virtual invention commercialization assistance

Continuing a program started in 2018, the Office of Innovation Advancement and Commercialization, or IAC, is offering intellectual property, or IP, commercialization information and assistance to faculty inventors through online sessions. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, most university meetings are being held through Zoom and other online meeting platforms, at least through the end of June.

“We have been offering online meetings for this purpose since the university moved to a remote working status in March,” said Brian Wright, director for commercialization. “We will continue conducting our assistance sessions online through the summer.”

IAC began its informational and assistance sessions, “On Campus Office Hours”, as an in person, on-site, department-specific program in fall 2018. The office has held over 40 on campus sessions in a dozen different locations. The program grew out of a focused effort to more proactively reach out to faculty inventors, starting with meeting with 25 individual university departments in 2017 and 2018, according to Wright.

“These sessions were drop-in or by appointment to researchers needing general or personalized information and assistance about the IP commercialization process,” Wright said. “Later adding personnel that could address questions on contracts, including confidentiality and industry research agreements. Our professional staff were present to answer questions and to provide assistance. We are doing the very same thing now—only in a Zoom meeting. We have never before offered them during summer, primarily because so many people are off campus. Now that they are remote, that’s no longer an issue. So virtual may be the new model for summer office hours.”

On-site in-person sessions typically were scheduled in three-hour blocks, Wright said.

“Zoom sessions this summer will be broken up more broadly into life sciences or physical sciences to match expertise and manage traffic, but they also will be announced and open to any faculty member who wants to log on and attend,” Wright said. “If faculty want, they also can arrange for an individual on-line meeting with our professional staff outside of these scheduled hours.”

Departmental information and assistance sessions is only one of several ways that the IAC is reaching out to better aid inventors and help them to effectively navigate the IP commercialization process. IAC also is working on ways to better support start-up firms that are forming to commercialize AU developments with more available seed money, incubator space and other resources.

Earlier this year, the IAC reported that its metrics for technologies and other intellectual properties are seeing a steady growth, and year-to-date totals in fiscal year 2020 suggest that this is a continuing trend. IAC reported $1,340,677.44 of licensing revenue for fiscal year 2019—a 15 percent increase over fiscal year 2018.

“We believe that efforts, such as these department assistance sessions, are helpful to faculty and they are helping to increase Auburn’s IP commercialization successes,” Wright said. “By offering this assistance online, we can continue to provide support even through this current pandemic disruption of normal work. Hopefully, we can resume in-person on-site sessions this fall.”

Click here for more information about scheduling on-line meetings with IAC staffers.