Academia and Technology Transfer in the U.S.

Abstract

Universities have made a significant contribution to innovation in the U.S. University research is continuously translated into technologies with an enormous impact on the American economy and society. Technology transfer from 1996 to 2015 has contributed over $1.3 trillion to the U.S. gross industrial output and resulted in millions of new jobs. During the past 25 years, more than 400,000 inventions have been disclosed to over 200 academic technology transfer offices across the U.S., resulting in approximately 80,000 patents. In 2017, for example, universities and research institutions executed about 8,000 license and option agreements and contributed to the creation of 755 products [1]. The wide-ranging influence of technologies created at universities cannot be overstated: technologies such as life-saving therapeutics and medical devices, materials, the computer, the internet, GPS, 3-D printing, genome editing, and artificial intelligence were all originally developed at U.S. universities.

Keywords: Academia, technology transfer in US, universities, GPS, 3-D printing, genome editing, AI, Artificial intelligence