Research becomes more commercial

Income earned by Australian universities and research institutes licensing their technologies and inventions jumped from $3 billion to $4 billion between 2000-2004, shows a new report released by the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop.

The National Survey of Research Commercialisation (NSRC) report, which gathers information from universities, publicly funded research institutions and medical research institutes, provides new data for the years 2003 and 2004, as well as incorporating trends during the period from 2000 to 2004.

It finds that over the five years that data has been collected:

• Invention disclosures increased by 77%.
• Patents and plant breeder rights, which establish legal protection for IP, increased by 79%.
• Licences, options and assignments yielding income per year increased by 36%.
• Start-up companies operational at the end of each year nearly tripled, with the value of institutional equity in start ups increasing by 41%.
• Commercialisation staff increased by 74%.

Universities alone earned more than $630 million from research consultancies.

Mike Preston