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By Esther Benenson
The UGA Research Foundation and the Medical College of Georgia Research Institute have signed a technology-transfer collaboration agreement whereby UGARF will manage technology  commercialization activities on behalf of MCGRI.
“This agreement guarantees ‘one-stop shopping’ for commercialization activities at the University of Georgia and the Medical College of Georgia,” says Lisa Kuuttila, director of the UGARF Technology Commercialization Office. “UGARF’s technology-commercialization office will be able to assist inventors, entrepreneurs, investors and companies interested in business opportunities based on both UGA and MCG technologies. We are already starting to see links among technologies, start-up companies and research opportunities on the two campuses.”
Among the services that UGARF will provide for MCGRI are:
• evaluation of new ideas originating at UGA and MCG;
• intellectual property protection;
• marketing and licensing to established companies; and
• facilitation of start-up companies.
Working with spin-off companies is a high priority of the UGARF technology-commercialization office. Besides leasing space to start-up companies at various locations on campus, the office provides business-assistance services to entrepreneurs and companies, such as links to service providers, business partners, sources of financing, business school courses and students.
“The UGARF-MCGRI collaboration is a very positive development as part of the UGA initiative to develop and expand programs in the biomedical sciences and health,” says Stuart Feldman, acting director of the UGA biomedical sciences and health initiative. “This partnership and the sharing of information with MCG will link research interests of faculty on our campuses, leading to positive benefits to the institutions and the state.”
“We are very excited about the opportunities offered by this collaboration,” says Betty Aldridge, executive director of MCG’s Research Institute. “The infrastructure supporting the intellectual property and technology transfer at the University of Georgia is strong. Medical College of Georgia faculty will benefit both from UGA’s expertise in the commercialization of technology and as a result of increased opportunities to build research linkages between the two institutions.”
As a separate, non-profit organization, the UGA Research Foundation secures funding for UGA research through gifts, contributions, grants, contract work and sponsored research. It also oversees all intellectual property--discoveries, innovations, inventions, patents and copyrights--developed through UGA research programs.
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