Louisiana agrees with the concept

Louisiana State University (LSU) is set to provide a crucial lifeline to intellectual property with commercialisation potential following the approval of a $2m proof-of-concept fund for the institution.

The Leveraging Innovation for Technology Transfer (LIFT) fund will provide grants on a competitive basis of up to $50,000 twice a year, and is supported with proceeds generated from past LSU innovation licensed out from the institution. LSU intends to make the first wave of grants in June.

F. King Alexander, LSU president and chancellor, said: “This is exactly the kind of resource we need to provide our faculty with momentum to more effectively transfer innovation out of the lab and into the market. The LSU LIFT Fund will now support our faculty’s most promising inventions in that difficult-to-fund phase between basic research and commercialisation.”

In addition to the fund, LSU also announces changes to how the institution approaches tech transfer. LSU will now perform all its tech transfer through the LSU System Research and Technology Foundation, which will provide centralised support to each of the LSU campuses. The institution is aiming to lower external legal fees, and split the proceeds between campuses according to a formula based on each campus’ total annual research expenditures.