This work examines the role of university research in chemical sciences in the post Bayh-Dole era by combining unique data about funding sources, scientific publishing, invention disclosing, patenting and licensing, and utilization and commercialization of university inventions. The work sheds light on: (1) The relationship between the nature of research funding sources and university research, knowledge utilization and technology transfer; (2) The interplay between government funding and industry funding in university research; and (3) The relationship between IP protection and technology transfer and utilization of university research and inventions.
Intellectual merit: The project advances understanding of the multiple dimensions of University technology transfer. It addresses not only publishing and patenting, but also licensing, further patenting and indicators of commercialization, and relates all these to funding sources of university research. The research offers a clearer picture of the links between research support, research, and invention, and the ways in which inventions and publications are used in further research by licensees and nonlicensees. The research investigates not only whether patenting and exclusive licensing are encouraging commercialization by licensees, but also whether they are leading to further research, in the public or private sector. It provides new information about the effect of exclusive licensing on nonlicensee research to obtain a fuller comprehension of the overall effect of exclusivity. The project also provides a methodological platform for future research on university research and technology transfer.
Broader Impacts Few public policy issues are more important than technology transfer of research by the nation's universities to users who convert it into further advances, and development and commercialization of products. The Bayh-Dole Act has been an important factor in the rapid increase in university patenting and licensing in the United States, and has contributed to the current leadership position of the United States in high technology industries including biomedicine and pharmaceuticals, advanced materials and chemistry. It informs further deliberations on university patenting policy by providing better information on the ways in which effective technology transfer is actually occurring. Finally, the project supports the move to "evidence-based" decisions by government on funding and on the merits of increased private sector research support.
