IU ICO Perspectives: a process to closely align with faculty

By Simran Trana, associate vice president, IU Innovation and Commercialization Office

Over the six months that I have been at Indiana University, IU ICO has been reviewing its processes, practices and development programs that will align us more closely with faculty and what they need in terms of commercializing their intellectual property.

Our commercialization managers are available to work with IU researchers to evaluate the discoveries and create an IP management and commercialization strategy, specifically aligned to each faculty member, their goals and priorities, the stage of development of their technology, and their area of research to make sure that university resources are invested in a way that will maximize the opportunity for commercial development of their technology.

Below is a high-level diagram that provides the process by which ICO evaluates markets and commercializes opportunity technologies developed at Indiana.

The process begins when IU researchers – including faculty, staff and students – discover something they consider new or noteworthy in their laboratory or other workspace. The researcher then submits a research discovery innovation to IU ICO. Disclosures can be made online or via email.

When ICO receives the disclosure, it is assigned to a commercialization manager who conducts due diligence on the invention’s novelty and market potential. That information is shared during a meeting with all ICO personnel, when we determine the next steps for the IP, including creating a marketing and commercialization plan, or offering a return of rights to the inventor. The process continues as ICO personnel market the IP to find companies and assist with startups to license the technology and bring it to market.

ICO looks forward to developing an integrated program with faculty by analyzing patents and potential markets to develop a plan to support commercialization efforts. We look forward to working closely with the OVCR and OVPR offices to develop programs to help support some internal development until we have technology that is ready for external investment. ICO is excited to have the opportunity to work with our premier research community. Connect with ICO at:  https://research.iu.edu/innovation-commercialization/index.html

Thank you for the warm welcome and ICO looks forward to making innovation and commercialization a featured and integral strength for Indiana University.