International Study Programs
Study Tour Program to California on Research Commercialisation, Regional Engagement & Future University Directions, 25 Feb to 6 Mar 2007, Visiting San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco
Designed for senior university executives/managers, governing body members, and university commercialisation company executives, this program will focus particularly on:
- Research commercialisation, technology licensing, start-ups and regional engagement
- Research management, including relations with the NSF and industry, monitoring performance, and the use of metrics
- Innovation and future directions for teaching, research and graduate research training
- Private and ‘for-profit’ higher education providers
Contents
Program Details
Program Aims
Through institutional visits, seminars and discussions, the program focusses on university research commercialisation, regional engagement, and future university directions in American higher education. We expect that you will come to:
- Appreciate how U.S. universities approach research commercialistion and the different organisational strategies used in patenting, licensing inventions, and creation of start-ups;
- Understand better the role of higher education in regional economic and social development, with particular attention to the cases of San Diego and Silicon Valley;
- Become better aware of how leading research-intensive universities establish priorities, allocate research resources, monitoring outcomes and attract and retain highly competent staff;
- Understand how major American universities organise graduate education, and their efforts to recruit quality students, provide generous student support and achieve quality outcomes;
- Be aware of current thinking by leading American universities about their future developments; and
- Appreciate the important role being played by private institutions, including for-profit institutions.
American higher education internationally is a key pace-setter. Of the 100 leading universities identified in 2006 by Shanghai Jiaotong University, 54 are in U.S. and of these 10 are in California. Being wealthy and the largest state in America in terms of population, it is not surprising that California has a particularly strong higher education system, with impressive examples of high quality research and close partnerships between research universities and industry. Higher education consists of a public sector that includes the 10 campus high-ranking University of California, the 22 campus California State University and College system, and well over 100 community colleges. In addition, there are strong private research universities including Stanford University (in the heart of Silicon Valley), Caltech (that manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA) and the University of Southern California. Higher education underpins the success of the California in a wide range of industries, including agriculture, multi-media, biotechnology, medical research, aerospace and ITC. Of particular interest are the new Californian Institutes for Science and Innovation established in the year 2000, concentrating in the areas of bioengineering and biotechnology, nanosystems, telecommunications and information technology, and the plans of the Californian Governor to raise US$4 billion dollars for stem cell research.
Program Emphases
Research commercialisation and regional engagement
Over the past three decades, and especially since the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 granting universities the rights to commercialise federally funded research outputs, American research-intensive universities have placed increased emphasis on patents, licensing and start-ups. According to AUTM survey results for the year 2004, 196 universities and hospitals reported a total of US$1.385 billion in license income, 16,871 invention disclosure, 10,571 patents filed and 462 start-ups. The leading universities in terms of annual license income were in order: the University of California system (US$74.3m), University of Wisconsin at Madison (US$47.7m), and Stanford University (US$47.3m). For the period 2000-2004, the Milken Institute (http://www.milkeninstitute.org/) ranked universities on a combined research commercialization index made up of patents issued, licenses executed, license income and start-ups ranks, with MIT 1st, the University of California 2nd, Caltech 3rd and Stanford 4th. Many regional areas have benefited to a major extent by the contributions of research and innovation. San Diego was named by the Milken Institute as the No, 1 biotech cluster on the basis of its success in developing a climate of innovation, bringing new products to market, establishing new companies and creating jobs. Start-ups have created new products while the ‘pharma’ corporate giants Merck, Pfizer, Dow and Novartis have developed key partnerships with local companies.
Research management performance
Research is big business and demands particular specialist management structures to establish priorities, allocate resources and monitor performance. According to the 2005 AUTM survey, the University of California had a total sponsored research expenditure of US$2.791 billion while Stanford spent US$693m.
Innovations and future directions including graduate education
American higher education leadership is being challenged by substantial investment in research universities in Japan, China and Korea and by European course structure and QA innovations with the Bologna Process. This is prompting American institutions to take initiatives to safeguard their competitive advantage. Leading U.S. universities have strong graduate programs; UCLA, for example, has 13,000 postgraduate students and 1,000 post-docs. About 90 per cent of full-time students PhD students receive some scholarship support.
Private and for ‘profit higher’ education
America has a long tradition of private higher education that includes leading research universities such as Harvard, Stanford and Princeton and private arts colleges. But the new development is with ‘for-profit’ universities, with the most notable example being the University of Phoenix, with 200,000 adult students and campuses throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Europe.
Institutional Visits
UC San Diego
Established in 1959, the University of California San Diego has quickly become a world leader in key research fields, particularly biotechnology and IT. It is ranked 12th among world universities by the Shanghai Jiaotong Institute. San Diego also provides an impressive example of economic development driven by innovation in which UC San Diego has played a major role, with in its commercialization policy giving preference for licensing to local firms and local-start-ups. Techtips led by UCSD Assistant Vice Chancellor, Alan Pauu, has agreed for us to visit on 27 February 2007.
California Institute of Technology
Caltech is a remarkably successful research university, with a total enrolment of only about 2,000 students (1,000 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate). We have been invited by the Office of Technology Transfer Director, Fred Farina, to visit and learn of the OTT approach, particularly to patenting and start-ups. All Caltech’s technology transfer specialists are patent attorneys or lawyers (see http://www.ott.caltech.edu).
Stanford University
The Stanford Office of Technology Licensing is one of the most successful in the field of technology transfer from university to industry. Each year Stanford generates about US$50m in licensing income. We have requested to participate in the regular Friday presentation on 2 March given by the Director of the Office of Technology Licensing, Katharine Ku (See http://otl.stanford.edu/about/index.html).
Schedule
Sun 25 Feb: Briefing meeting 6.00pm at Radisson La Jolla Hotel, with optional dinner to follow
Mon 26 Feb: University of California San Diego, SD Regional Economic Development Corp.
Tues 27 Feb: SD Connect, Salk Institute and fly late afternoon to Los Angeles
Wed 28 Feb: University of California Los Angeles and Milken Institute
Thurs 1 Mar: California Institute of Technology and fly late afternoon to San Francisco
Friday 2 Mar: Stanford University
Sat & Sun 3-4 Mar: Weekend free
Mon 5 Mar: Central Office University of California, and University of Phoenix campus
Tues 6 Mar: University of California Berkeley, and UC San Francisco
The final program will depend on availability of key personnel and will take account of participant interests. We plan to stay the nights of 25-26 February in San Diego, 27-28 February in Los Angeles, and from 1 March in San Francisco. Participants can make their own plans for the weekend of 4-5 March. Registration can be cancelled up to 26 January 2007, with a full refund. In the event of forced cancellation of the program owing to a major ‘external event’ causing major dislocation of airline schedules, registration fees but not other expenses may be refunded, depending on the length of the period in advance of the program.