Forum for Science, Industry and Business

In a Chilly Investment Climate, Canadian Universities Find Alternative Sources of Revenue

The survey also showed a 20 percent increase in industry support for university research, with companies committing $795 million towards innovative research projects.

The results were part of the annual AUTM Canadian Licensing Activity Survey: FY2010, which shares quantitative information about licensing activities at Canadian universities, hospitals and research institutions.

“Overall, the FY2010 data suggest that Canadian technology transfer offices continue to see the effects of the economic recession play out in a variety of ways," says AUTM President Robin L. Rasor, CLP, RTTP. "The overall number of invention disclosures from respondents decreased by nearly 10 percent. Licenses executed – a key indicator of future financial return – declined by more than 27 percent. However, a modest 1.7 percent decrease in overall licensing income was more than offset by a surge of nearly 50 percent in 'other income' – suggestive of offices’ efforts, in a chilly investment climate, to find alternative sources of revenue," adds Rasor.

"One positive metric in this year’s survey was industry funding for research, which increased substantially, by almost 20 percent, to $795 million," says Barbara H. Eccles, LL.M.,RTTP, AUTM Vice President for Canada. "Given the lag between research funding and commercial return, it will be interesting to see if this uptick in funding contributes to an increase in technology transfer activities," adds Eccles.

Members of the press may contact Jodi Talley at +1-847-559-0846 or jtalley@autm.net at AUTM headquarters to set up an interview and to request a complimentary copy of the survey report.

| Newswise Science News
Further information:
http://www.autm.net

Im Focus: Virus multiplication in 3D

Vaccinia viruses serve as a vaccine against human smallpox and as the basis of new cancer therapies. Two studies now provide fascinating insights into their unusual propagation strategy at the atomic level.

For viruses to multiply, they usually need the support of the cells they infect. In many cases, only in their host’s nucleus can they find the machines,...

Im Focus: Cheers! Maxwell's electromagnetism extended to smaller scales

More than one hundred and fifty years have passed since the publication of James Clerk Maxwell's "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" (1865). What would our lives be without this publication?

It is difficult to imagine, as this treatise revolutionized our fundamental understanding of electric fields, magnetic fields, and light. The twenty original...

Im Focus: Highly charged ion paves the way towards new physics

In a joint experimental and theoretical work performed at the Heidelberg Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, an international team of physicists detected for the first time an orbital crossing in the highly charged ion Pr⁹⁺. Optical spectra were recorded employing an electron beam ion trap and analysed with the aid of atomic structure calculations. A proposed nHz-wide transition has been identified and its energy was determined with high precision. Theory predicts a very high sensitivity to new physics and extremely low susceptibility to external perturbations for this “clock line” making it a unique candidate for proposed precision studies.

Laser spectroscopy of neutral atoms and singly charged ions has reached astonishing precision by merit of a chain of technological advances during the past...

Im Focus: Ultrafast stimulated emission microscopy of single nanocrystals in Science

The ability to investigate the dynamics of single particle at the nano-scale and femtosecond level remained an unfathomed dream for years. It was not until the dawn of the 21st century that nanotechnology and femtoscience gradually merged together and the first ultrafast microscopy of individual quantum dots (QDs) and molecules was accomplished.

Ultrafast microscopy studies entirely rely on detecting nanoparticles or single molecules with luminescence techniques, which require efficient emitters to...

Im Focus: How to induce magnetism in graphene

Graphene, a two-dimensional structure made of carbon, is a material with excellent mechanical, electronic and optical properties. However, it did not seem suitable for magnetic applications. Together with international partners, Empa researchers have now succeeded in synthesizing a unique nanographene predicted in the 1970s, which conclusively demonstrates that carbon in very specific forms has magnetic properties that could permit future spintronic applications. The results have just been published in the renowned journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Depending on the shape and orientation of their edges, graphene nanostructures (also known as nanographenes) can have very different properties – for example,...