AUTM has officially released a new web portal, intended to facilitate partnership between corporations and research institutions. While several similar portals already exist, including the recently discussed initiative from the NIH to facilitate the licensing of non-parented research materials, the expectation is that the membership of AUTM will generate sufficient volume to establish the portal as a destination for corporations seeking to license technologies or contract research.
Only institutions that have AUTM membership can post to the portal, however that membership is between 3,000 and 4,000 members, representing between 300 and 400 institutions. In the few weeks since the official opening of the site, over 5,000 technologies have been posted.
One distinction of the AUTM portal is the focus is not entirely on marketing technologies, but also research capabilities. The beneficial relationship between corporations and research institutions is not limited to the licensing of technologies and the establishment of start-up companies.
For institutions that have AUTM membership, and also use InfoEd modules to track their research activity, the portal presents additional opportunity at no additional cost. Technologies and materials tracked in the Technology Transfer modules can be exported and posted to this portal, providing a passive marketing window. Resources and capabilities tracked for the purpose of Proposal Development can also be exported, providing opportunities for further research funding.
