Now Is the Time for Tech Transfer to Shine

Mike Waring
AUTM Advocacy and Alliances Coordinator



  
The recent attempt by the United States Administration to cap indirect costs for federally funded research at 15% was a wakeup call for the higher education community.
 
Announced just before the AUTM Annual Meeting in D.C. in early March, it became “topic one” at the meeting, as tech transfer professionals discussed the impact this decision could have – and was already having – on universities. Hiring freezes, fewer graduate students, layoffs – all could be considered on the table. At the Tuesday Fireside Chat, Representative Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) spoke out strongly against the move, citing the enormous impact it would have on medical and other kinds of research on university campuses and their surrounding regions.
 
Given the direct correlation between money spent on research and the number of inventions created, TTOs know all too well that research cuts could mean tech transfer cuts as well. Some are already moving forward with plans to adapt to the new situation.
 
For now, litigation by the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the American Council on Education (ACE) has achieved a preliminary injunction blocking the changes from taking place. Further court activity will determine if indeed the proposed ceiling will be enforced.
 
Whatever happens in court, it is clear that the federal budget for research in FY ’26 and beyond will be under enormous downward pressure. As universities – both collectively and individually – argue with lawmakers against such cuts, the benefits achieved from these investments can be highlighted most directly by tech transfer. The successes you and your colleagues have had are Exhibit A for why we should not reduce research funding, particularly at a time when the U.S. President and others have identified winning the innovation war against China and other countries as crucial to our future as a nation.
 
One tech transfer director noted that they knew the issue had shifted dramatically when deans and other campus leaders—who perhaps had previously not been so receptive to collaboration—began reaching out to them. The fact that these same individuals were now initiating contact signaled that the TTO could provide the ammunition the university needed to fight back.

Whatever happens in the next few months, tech transfer and the universities that engage in it will be tested. Now is the time to show your lawmakers and the world why these investments in research are essential to our national economic, security, and health care successes. Here is your chance to put your office’s “best foot forward” to make the value proposition for what you do and why the nation will never achieve its fullest potential without it.