University of Saskatchewan sets licensing revenue records

Licensing revenue from all sources at the U of S grew to just over $9 million, a 25 per cent increase over last year's $7.2 million. These levels represent record revenue earnings for the U of S said ILO Managing Director Glen Schuler.
"Our goal is to create 'win-win' solutions for both industry and the university by building programs that ensure a supportive and effective environment to transfer technology into the marketplace," Schuler said. "And we want the university's intellectual property—the outstanding ideas developed by our researchers for new products, technologies and services—to be used for the public good."
The ILO was established in 2004 to accelerate the commercialization of U of S research and knowledge. Since 2004, the ILO's licensing revenue has grown over 19 fold. Approximately 50 per cent of the ILO's licensing revenues have been returned to the researchers who developed the technologies.
Schuler added that the ILO has consistently been meeting its main metric of success, growing its active license portfolio by at least 20 per cent per year. It currently has 45 actively licensed technologies, with 10 added in 2011-12. Schuler credits its success to outstanding researchers, solid company partners and its strong teams in life sciences, agricultural and bioresources, and engineering and natural sciences; patenting; and start-up support.
"Promoting research and building a strong culture of innovation at the U of S is one of our top priorities and achieving these milestones places the U of S, as a whole, among the top three universities in Canada in terms of licensing revenue," said U of S Vice-President Research Karen Chad.
She added that this puts the U of S in the top 20 per cent in North America, based on preliminary data for the 2010-2011 fiscal year from the Association of University Technology Managers 2012 Licensing Survey.
Chad said the ILO has implemented a much more collaborative commercialization policy with industry. Its focus is to develop a long-term relationship with a company that spans both commercialization and research. The ILO is also involved with helping start businesses based on U of S research and works to support entrepreneurship both on and off campus through programs such as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence and the Tech Venture Challenge.
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For more information, contact:
Glen Schuler
Industry Liaison Office
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-1465
glen.schuler@usask.ca