Office of Innovation Management

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Academic Technology Transfer

Academic technology transfer is the transferring of University derived innovation to the commercial sector for further development and/or exploitation with the ultimate goal being societal benefit. America’s experience with academic technology transfer began with the launch of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) in 1929.

The Office of Innovation Management;

  • “mines” new, innovative ideas in every department across our campus,
  • Secures appropriate protections (at no cost to the inventors) and
  • Accelerates the movement of products from the laboratory to the marketplace.

Moreover the OIM employes the best practices (the latest concept of “technology transfer”) to include the broader notions of “technology development.” We view “academic technology development/commercialization” as a phenomenon that produces successful products (657 in 2010), accelerates innovation and generates significant revenues for the professor/student teams that produce inventions.