The founding members of the Nanotechnology Institute (NTI) — Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania and BFTP — have formed the Nanotechnology Commercialization Group (NCG) to facilitate the commercialization of intellectual property discoveries by NTI-member institutions.
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The Nanotechnology Institute, an alliance of business, academia and government, facilitates the research, development and commercialization of bio-nanotechnology advances.
It is helping position the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a hotbed both for emerging new nanotechnology enterprises and for future growth of established industries through a technology that is having transformative impact across many sectors. |
Nanotechnology refers to materials and devices that operate at the nanoscale — one-billionth of a meter. Nanotechnology already has significant impact in countless industries including communications, medicine, environmental cleanup, agriculture and more. Within a decade, global sales of products embodying nanotechnology innovations could top $2.5 trillion.
"This new partnership will have a major impact on our ability to bring nanoscience to commercial reality quickly," says Bill Stephenson, Ph.D., Vice Provost for Research and Dean for Graduate Policy, Office of the Provost, Drexel University.
Building on Partners' Strengths
The NCG will operate as a separate but integrated unit within Penn's Center for Technology Transfer. The new unit and its future three-member professional staff will be composed of both Penn and Drexel personnel and will be located in Penn's Technology Transfer offices.
"The Nanotechnology Commercialization Group builds on the inherent strengths of each of its partners, who have already made great strides toward commercializing nanoscale scientific research," says Perry Molinoff, M.D., Vice Provost for Research, University of Pennsylvania. "Nanotechnology has proven to be more than a buzzword for a passing trend. We now have the tools and talents to manipulate materials on the molecular scale, a technology with the potential to transform consumer, technical and health product industries."
Helping Bring Nano-Related Products to Market
The NCG will provide commercialization services to NTI-member institutions through an Inter-Institutional Agreement with Penn for all nanotechnology patents and patent applications including, but not limited to, those arising from NTI-funded research. Such services may include evaluating the IP for commercial potential, devising a commercialization strategy, marketing the IP, facilitating the formation of a start-up company, and or negotiating licenses on behalf of the IP owners and participating institutions.
"These new components of the NTI continue the pattern of innovative, collaborative approaches to drive technology development and commercialization that have become the hallmark of the Nanotechnology Institute and that have established it as a national model," says RoseAnn B. Rosenthal, President and CEO of BFTP/SEP.
The agreement also establishes a Nanotechnology Proof of Concept Seed Fund (PoC Fund) through the NTI. The PoC Fund will support the costs around projects recommended by the NCG.
From the September/October 2005 issue
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