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This Update addresses a growing area of activity at Stevens. Continued organizational changes in OSR to accommodate this critical area will result in additional updates in the next few weeks.
The negotiation of research agreements with industrial sponsors has become increasingly complex and time consuming. These Agreements include a greater emphasis on intellectual property rights in order to serve the needs of SIT's technology transfer program, and because they are contractual in nature they contain contract elements that must be negotiated to resolution in order to satisfy both SIT and the sponsor.
To expedite the negotiation process as much as possible, the Office of Sponsored Research has undertaken a number of steps internally. In addition, we are working with the SIT Intellectual Property Management/Office of Academic Entrepreneurship (OAE) to streamline the interface between OSR and OAE in those cases where the OSR research agreement contains provisions impacting directly on the licensing of SIT technology.
The most important step in the process, however, is to establish more effective communications with members of the SIT faculty and staff who are now, or may in the future become, involved in industrially sponsored research.
Feedback is critical to continued refinement of the processes in this area of sponsored research. There are two types of input which we would particularly welcome and I invite you to address them to bdehaven@stevens.edu.
General Comments - Your suggestions or recommendations for improving the negotiation process and any comments on what is going well and what is not. If you have more to say than you wish to write, simply reference "Update Industry Sponsors," with your name and phone number, and I will contact you.
Advance Notice - Advance notice of an industrial interaction that is likely to result in the negotiation of a research agreement involving unusual features or requiring special attention. These interactions/negotiations will be entered on the OSR Contract Activity Log and their progress reviewed on a weekly basis within OSR and in joint OSR-OAE discussions. |
