AUTM President Jon Soderstrom, Ph.D. Managing Director Yale University

I’m sure many of your saw the piece in the New York Times by Janet Rae-Dupree.  Such one-sided articles have appeared before, speaking unfavorably of our profession and our influence on our university’s research priorities. After much discussion among the Board of Trustees and meetings with AAU and NASULGC, the Board decided not to get into a tit for tat with these publications or their writers.  Rather, it is interesting to note that on the same day that the New York Times article ran, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page carried a piece written by the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (“Don’t Believe the Doomsayers”, Wall Street Journal, 9/6/08) that highlights the diversification of the state economy brought about by spin-offs of research generated by their academic institutions.  We are also heartened that some knowledgeable observers have weighed into the discussion. As always, we want AUTM to be your resource to provide both sides of the argument and encourage debate.  To that end, here is a list of recent articles on the Bayh-Dole act, patents, economic development and the like.  I encourage us as  professionals to engage in a discussion via this blog and others on the issues which have been raised.  See, for example, Edward Hejlek’s letter to the editor (New York Times, Sept. 27 ), “New Attack on Patenting in the New York Times” on Patent Docs blog, Universities Turn Research into Revenue in the September 12, 2008 issue of Forbes.com, and “When Newspapers Put Controversy and Misinformation Ahead of Facts” on Technology Transfer Tactics blog.  

You can view BIO's reponse to McGill's recent study by clicking here.

AUTM President Jon Soderstrom, Ph.D. Managing Director Yale University

As I reported to you back in May it has been my goal to use the AUTM Board of Trustees meetings as a vehicle for discussing important strategic issues facing both the profession and the association.  It has been gratifying to witness how thoughtfully engaged our Board members are. As I review the notes from our meeting last week, we spent most of our time on several very substantive topics.  I’ll attempt to summarize here but if ever you would like to know more do not hesitate to e-mail me, any member of the Board of Trustees or the Executive Director.

Certainly, the role of our profession in the conduct of research continues to attract a great deal of attention – both positive and negative.  I’m sure many of your saw the piece in the New York Times by Janet Rae-Dupree.  Such one-sided articles have appeared before, speaking unfavorably of our profession and our influence on our university’s research priorities. After much discussion among the Board of Trustees and meetings with AAU and NASULGC, the Board decided not to get into a tit for tat with these publications or their writers.  Rather, it is interesting to note that on the same day that the New York Times article ran, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page carried a piece written by the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (“Don’t Believe the Doomsayers”, Wall Street Journal, 9/6/08) that highlights the diversification of the state economy brought about by spin-offs of research generated by their academic institutions.  We are also heartened that some knowledgeable observers have weighed into the discussion. As always, we want AUTM to be your resource to provide both sides of the argument and encourage debate.  To that end, here is a list of recent articles on the Bayh-Dole act, patents, economic development and the like.  I encourage us as  professionals to engage in a discussion via this blog and others on the issues which have been raised.  See, for example, “New Attack on Patenting in the New York Times” on Patent Docs blog, Universities Turn Research into Revenue in the September 12, 2008 issue of Forbes.com, and “When Newspapers Put Controversy and Misinformation Ahead of Facts” on Technology Transfer Tactics blog.  

Thank you to all who participated in our recent survey regarding certification.  We had an outstanding response rate and the feedback was very useful.  In summary, you told us that you are still ambivalent about a certification for the profession.  You felt strongly that a certification does create a clearly defined path for professional development and that AUTM should be involved in any certification for this profession.  ASTP (Association of European Science and Technology Transfer Professionals) ran a similar survey in tandem with AUTM’s.  Laurent Mieville, ASTP president, and I presented preliminary results of our surveys at COPENMIND earlier this month.  Interestingly, we saw similar results among many questions in the two surveys.  See the full results of AUTM’s survey here .  We recognize the issue of certification is a pressing one across many regions.  AUTM will continue to engage with like-minded organizations on this issue and report back to you as progress evolves. 

As reported in this blog AUTM has agreed to accept two seats on the CLP Board of Governors.  I am happy to report that Kathy Ku, Stanford University and Patrick Jones, University of Arizona, have agreed to represent AUTM on the CLP Board of Governors. 

The Board engaged in another robust discussion about Global Health.  This issue becomes more and more prevalent in our every day work and lives.  AUTM and its members have a responsibility to stay informed and engaged in the areas where we can have a positive impact.  Janna Tom, Vice President for Public Policy, remains in close contact with BIO and others regarding Global Health.  Janna attended the WHO meeting as part of BIO’s representatives earlier this year.  AUTM will join BIO, BioVentures for Global Health and the Gates Foundation in support of the second Partnering for Global Health Forum to be held in the fall of 2009.  AUTM will also present its 2009 Better World Report on Global Health at the annual meeting in February.  More activities are underway but are still in their early stages and not ready to report now.  What can you do right now?  You can sign on to The Nine Points to Consider when Licensing Technology.  The ninth point refers specifically to the issue of access when licensing technology and asks us to keep in mind those who need the technology most when we are negotiating an agreement.

There was much, much more activity at the Board meeting last week, certainly too much to report all here.  To give you a sense, we discussed and assigned action to members of the Board on the following topics: expanded online learning, online membership orientations, leadership development, volunteer engagement, budget development, outreach to international members, collaborations with other organizations and AUTM Foundation activities.

As always, I hope you find this summary useful.  I welcome your comments and encourage you to speak with any member of the Board about these or previously reported activities.  Remember, this blog is meant to foster better communication between the Board and you.  Use this tool, and use it often.

AUTM President Jon Soderstrom, Ph.D. Managing Director Yale University

The AUTM Board of Trustees met July 23-24 in Boston immediately following the Eastern Region meeting. I had the pleasure of attending the Eastern Region meeting and it was excellent.  I understand both the Central and Western region meetings were of equally high quality and all saw record breaking attendance. Thank you to the Region Vice Presidents and their committees for their tireless work and long hours putting together another round of outstanding events for the members.

As has become our practice, we set aside blocks of time to have in-depth discussion on some of the important issues that we face as professionals and as an organization.  At this meeting, the Board focused on three primary areas of discussion: Communications, Defining the Profession and University-Industry relations.  Here is a brief summary of these discussions.

We covered a lot of ground under the Communications header and thanks to the tremendous leadership of our VP for Communications, Kirsten Leute, the Board participated in its first facilitated branding discussion. The purpose of this discussion was to ensure that the AUTM brand experience consistently meets and exceeds member expectations and that the AUTM brand keeps its promise; that we set the AUTM brand apart by creating a unique relationship/ bond with members; that we provide members with meaningful benefits that can’t be found or substituted elsewhere; and that the AUTM brand is consistent in the way it looks, feels, talks and acts at all touch points.

This discussion brought consensus on what sets us apart: AUTM provides a global perspective on the unique nature of academic technology transfer that members can deploy no matter where they work.

Over the next 12 months and beyond you will start to see greater consistency and stronger messaging about who we are and what we do as well as more opportunities for our global membership to learn, share and grow.

One of the more significant changes will be a major renovation of the AUTM Web site.  The Board wants the Web site to become AUTM’s premier communications tool.  It will act as a source of information as well as a connection point for our community of members.  Before the end of the year we will implement new social networking tools, easier navigation and fresher content.  We have already begun to launch some of these new tools.  This President’s Blog and Consider This are opportunities for members to discuss what is going on within AUTM and the profession.

The Board continues to refine our views about Defining the Profession.  As an integrating theme for our work this year, you will continue to see this throughout much of what we do.  In fact, this topic is the theme for the 2009 Annual Meeting.  At this meeting, we focused on the issue of certification.  The Technology Transfer profession worldwide is at something of a crossroads, with certification and accreditation schemes being proposed in a number of places.  This could have dramatic implications for the profession and AUTM has a clear interest in these developments.  This has challenged the Board to think through what role, if any, AUTM should play in this or other certifications programs.

As many of you know, the Licensing Executive Society (LES) launched their Certified Licensing Professional (CLP) program this year.  LES has formed a separate entity, Certified Licensing Professional, Inc. that will manage the CLP program.  Kathleen Denis from Rockefeller University is serving as the interim president of the Board of Governors for Certified Licensing Professionals, Inc.  We asked Kathleen to join the Board discussion via telephone to present information about the program and answer many of our questions.  Certified Licensing Professionals, Inc. has offered AUTM two seats on their Board of Governors.  AUTM has agreed to accept these seats and will continue its discussions with Kathleen and others about CLP.

We believe that it is our role to represent the interests and needs of our members to LES and others who are developing these schemes and to help determine their value to our members.  We would very much appreciate your views on certification and accreditation so that we can engage with these third parties and our partner technology transfer organizations around the world to ensure that the best possible provision is available to our members.  Today, we will send out a short survey to members on this subject. Please take a few moments to complete the survey. Your input is critical as we continue to deal with this topic.

Relationships between universities and industry is at the heart of almost everything that we do as a profession.  Obviously, developing and maintaining positive working relationships is key to success in our profession.  The Board believes that we need to do more to promote a healthy dialogue between the parties on important issues of common concern.  We believe that such a conversation could help avoid many of the pitfalls and problems that often result from a lack of communication and understanding on our potential partner’s perspective.  Lee Heiman, Vice President for Industry Relations has engaged with LES on a possible joint Industry summit.  Conversations are still preliminary but the idea sounds promising.  We will be sure the membership is up to date on this concept as it evolves.

In the area of general business activities, the Board unanimously approved the slate for open positions for the 2009 Board of Trustees.  The petition process is open and you can read more about this here.  The 2009 Annual Meeting and Marketing add-on course budgets were approved.

As always, feel free to submit your comments or questions to this summary.  Maintaining two-way communication between the Board of Trustees and membership is a priority.