Licensing dollars boost higher education's bottom line

ACADEMIC RESEARCHERS, WHO SPEND HOURS TOILING AWAY IN LABORATORIES and libraries, can be credited for more than just academic gains, according to the latest survey of the Association of University and Technology Managers. Each year the association tracks how much money colleges, universities, and other institutions are being paid in licensing revenue. These types of agreements can cover everything from Stanford University's Google-related licensing income, to the University of Massachusetts's "gene-silencing" technology, which is expected to be used to help fight diseases.

The latest AUTM survey, which covers 2004, shows a "continued steady growth" in such revenue, says Ashley Stevens, AUTM's vice president and the survey's editor. The most dramatic survey result shows that the number of new companies launched on the basis of academic research grew by 25 percent in 2004. The latest result ends two years of declines. In all, U.S. institutions, which include research hospitals, executed 4,800 new licenses, or options, in 2004, up 6.1 percent from the prior year.

U.S. colleges and universities collected a total of $1.034 billion in revenues from licensing technologies, which include new drugs, internet advancements, and architectural products. A full copy of the report is available at www.autm.net.

LICENSING REVENUE FOR IHEs, FISCAL 2004

 1 New York University                                $109.0 million
 2 University of California system                      74.3 million
 3 Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation/ University     47.7 million
   of Wisconsin at Madison
 4 Stanford University (Calif.)                         47.3 million
 5 University of Minnesota                              45.6 million
 6 University of Florida                                37.4 million
 7 Michigan State University                            36.4 million
 8 Wake Forest University                               34.3 million
 9 University of Colorado System                        34.1 million
10 University of Rochester (N.Y.)                       33.7 million
11 University of Massachusetts                          26.3 million
12 Massachusetts Institute of Technology                25.8 million
13 University of Washington/ Washington Research        22.8 million
   Foundation
14 Emory University (Ga.)                               22.5 million
15 Harvard University.                                  16.7 million

Source: AUTM U.S. Licensing Survey: FY 2004

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