South Florida University has broken its own record for licence and option agreements, increasing them by 12% to 133.
South Florida University (USF) last week announced it has signed 133 licence and option agreements during the financial year of 2016, an increase of 14 deals (or 12%) compared to the preceding period.
The university also established nine new companies during that period, lifting its total for the past five years at 50 businesses.
Additionally, USF secured 105 US patents, up from 90 for 2015 and putting the institution in the US top 10 for public universities for a sixth consecutive year.
USF also launched an early-stage funding initiative this year, the Bull Ring Accelerator Grant (Brag) program. Brag offers $25,000 in grant funding to very early-stage ventures that may not yet be ready for USF’s Seed Capital Accelerator Program, which supplies up to $50,000 in convertible debt.
Valerie Landrio McDevitt, associate vice-president for technology transfer and business partnerships at USF, said: “USF is a high-impact research university dedicated to the commercialisation of research for the public benefit.
“By bringing USF’s innovation into the marketplace, we can not only benefit local and national economic development, but help change lives. We credit our research success to the ongoing collaboration between our researchers, administrative staff, business and economic partners, and our community.”
