AUTM Survey Data Shows Gender Gaps Persist for Key Technology Transfer Activities

Forough Ghahramani
Assistant Vice President for Research, Innovation and Sponsored Programs, NJEdge, Inc.
AUTM Women Inventors Special Interest Group

Anne E. Hall
Technology Portfolio Manager, University of Minnesota Technology Commercialization
AUTM Women Inventors Special Interest Group

Sandipan Banerjee
Technology Portfolio Manager, University of Minnesota Technology Commercialization

AUTM Women Inventors Special Interest Group

A new analysis of AUTM Licensing Survey data indicates that women's involvement in key technology transfer activities has not increased appreciably in the last eight years—a trend that is consistent with data published by other organizations. Women inventors’ continued underrepresentation suggests the AUTM community must do more to help close the gender gap.

According to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) report Progress and Potential: 2020 Update, only 20% of issued patents have a woman listed as an inventor, and only 13% of inventors are women. According to Institute for Women’s Policy Research report, The Gender Patenting Gap, at the current rate, parity won’t be achieved in the US until 2092. Likewise, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization, globally only 30% of patents have a woman listed and only 14% of inventors globally are women. At the current rate, parity won’t be achieved globally until 2061.

This underrepresentation indicates that a vast range of talent is not being tapped to address pressing social and environmental needs and challenges, as well as to increase the overall competitiveness of economies.

The AUTM Women Inventors Special Interest Group (WISIG) was formed to help improve equity and diversity in tech transfer, and we use data from the annual AUTM Licensing Survey to document and track potential gaps in innovator participation. Our ultimate goals are to use data to highlight challenges, document effective approaches to reduce gaps, set goals to drive positive change and measure improvement over time.

Since 2015, the AUTM WISIG has tracked and analyzed AUTM member institutions’ reporting on participation of women in invention disclosures and patent applications. Our group relies on participating institutions’ responses to two specific questions that were added to the AUTM Annual Licensing Survey in 2015, at the recommendation of AUTM WISIG: the number of invention disclosures and the number of new patent applications that “include at least one woman.”

In 2021, our team reported the first analysis of six years of AUTM Licensing Survey data from these two questions. In short, the data revealed large gaps between men and women’s involvement in tech transfer and a need for significant action to improve women’s involvement. We now have two additional years of data and an updated analysis to report to the community.

The data reveals that at the institutional level, response rates related to the Licensing Survey questions on women’s participation is inconsistent. There has actually been a decrease in the number of institutions reporting in the eight-year period from FY2015 (196) to FY2022 (183). The number of new patent filings with at least one woman has increased marginally during that time, from 32% to 37%. But the percentage of invention disclosures with at least one woman in FY2022 (22%) is almost the same as in FY2015 (21%).

The data now clearly shows that women's involvement in key technology transfer activities has not increased over nearly a decade, with a marginal increase in new patent filings and no significant improvement in percentage of invention disclosures with at least one woman. This data, and the gaps it highlights in women’s participation in tech transfer, are of significant concern. More resources and greater attention are clearly needed. Efforts to date have not been enough. Greater action and support is needed by the entire AUTM community and member institutions to improve women’s involvement in technology transfer.

To monitor progress and track where we are as a community, it is critical that AUTM Members track and report women’s involvement in the AUTM Licensing Survey. To assist institutions in tracking and reporting, the WISIG Metrics Group created a guide for technology transfer offices: Collecting Legal Sex Data from University Inventors: A Technology Transfer Office (TTO) User’s Guide. This guide, which is now available on the AUTM website, provides the AUTM community with:

Concrete guidance for TTOs of any size to answer questions more easily about inventor legal sex on the annual AUTM Licensing Survey,
Information to share with university administrators as well as human resources and information technology departments who may be unfamiliar with these types of requests, and
Inspiration for TTOs to collect more granular inventor data to determine a baseline, track progress, and determine areas of opportunity for innovator outreach and support.

The AUTM WISIG is grateful to the partnership support from the AUTM Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee and AUTM for promoting the guide and instructional toolkit to increase reporting. We plan to report the results of our analysis of the AUTM Survey data and methods broadly to the AUTM community through the Annual and Regional meetings. In addition, AUTM WISIG is committed to raising awareness of best practices and tips for collecting legal sex data, while continuing the grass-roots efforts to encourage all AUTM institutions to consistently document women’s involvement in their tech transfer activities. We also encourage institutions to review the Nine Points to Consider for Fostering Greater Inclusion in Innovation, developed by WISIG and endorsed by AUTM, as a roadmap to support the participation of women and other underrepresented groups in innovation activities.

We welcome participation from the AUTM community in AUTM WISIG. A great way to contribute is to consider joining our efforts. To do so, reach out to any of us individually or send a message to [email protected].