Rochester gears up on tech transfer

The University of Rochester has renamed its tech transfer unit to URVentures, marking its opening move in a plan which will see the institution place a renewed focus of research commercialisation.

Amongst the shift in strategy are plans to introduce a web tool to make it easier for academics to disclose potential inventions, freeing up staff time for project management, marketing, and licensing, and stronger support for both the screening of new technologies and the ability to assist them along the innovation pipeline.

Scott Catlin, associate vice president for innovation and technology commercialisation at the university, said: “The point is to identify the right opportunities, the right support system for each of our technologies to give them the opportunity to succeed.”