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OAKLAND - The University of Pittsburgh is launching a new initiative, the Technology Commercialization Alliance, which it hopes will accelerate the efforts of its 5-year-old Office of Technology Management.
The alliances mission is to make the technology transfer process of moving ideas from lab to market easier for faculty by marshaling internal resources such as market research, business planning and prototype development, mentoring and networking opportunities. Pitt wants to increase patent filings based on faculty research, the first step in potentially creating a company, by as much as 25 percent.
"We want to educate the faculty on what the alliance can do for them," said Pitt provost James Maher. "The Office of Technology Management is almost exclusively focused on making deals outside. Commercialization is a Mr. Maher very complex enterprise, and it's not just the business of making deals around intellectual property."
He said most of Pitt's faculty was "somewhat indifferent to tech transfer" a decade ago. "But more and more," he said, "the younger generation is quite interested and do expect the university to provide services like the Technology Commercialization Alliance."
Though there have been reports of...