UNH Creates Office for Research Partnerships and Commercialization
 
By Carie Schelfhaudt, Media Relations Writing Intern

UNH has created the Office for Research Partnerships and Commercialization, a new group intended to bring the fruits of UNH-based research to bear on economic development by commercializing the results of the rapidly growing research enterprise at UNH. This enterprise is driven by external funding that has increased from $81.9 million to $107.2 million since 2001.

In strategically considering how best to capitalize on the research growth and entrepreneurial spirit, efforts began in the fall of 2004 to maximize the programmatic activities of those programs whose core value has been to increase competitiveness through commercializing research and thus increase the region’s and state’s economic well being, according to Bob Dalton, program director of the Office for Research Partnerships and Commercialization (ORPC).

“With the creation of ORPC, UNH has expanded its focus on research, commercialization and economic development at the statewide level by building advanced research partnerships,” said John Aber, vice president for research and public service. “ORPC integrates the technological and economic development engines of campus-based research and the state’s private sector.”

The new office combined two statewide programs, the New Hampshire Industrial Research Center and NH EPSCoR Program (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) with the existing Office of Intellectual Property Management. The intellectual property office originally managed invention disclosures, patents, trademarks, copyrights’ licenses and spin-out companies. By protecting the intellectual property rights of the university, the office supports invention and innovation to achieve competitiveness and economic development, according to Dalton.

According to Paula Pelletier, program coordinator for the new office, the number of research disclosures and royalties have increased significantly over the past four years, causing total revenues to increase by more than 50 percent per year.

Dalton, who previously directed the intellectual property office, is well suited for the new challenge. “Bob Dalton brings six years of experience at UNH and many years at the University of Maine and the private sector to the complex task of identifying projects that provide the best opportunity for major advances in technology and economic development,” Aber said.