Enhancing Univerity Research through Corporate Engagement and Collaboration

Bold Aspirations outlines six important goals for the university. This paper relates specifically to Goal 4, which is focuses on engaged scholarship: “to engage local, state, national, and global communities as partners in scholarly activities that have direct public impact.” As part of that goal, we seek to promote active entrepreneurship and vibrant external partners. A key component of this strategy was the creation of the Office of Corporate Partnerships, developed to diversify KU’s research portfolio. The Office of Corporate Partnerships was introduced into KU’s existing commercialization enterprise, and in the two years since the office’s creation, we have already seen an increase in the amount of corporate and foundation research funding as a percentage of our overall research portfolio. Creating the Office of Corporate Partnerships As background to understand the broader context surrounding the creation of the Office of Corporate Partnerships, KU’s historical approach to developing partnerships with businesses was local and ad hoc. The university did not have impressive levels of corporate-funded research. KU’s research assets were not organized as efficiently as they should have been to encourage engagement with outside groups. The KU Center for Technology Commercialization (KUCTC) was established in 2008 as the separate 501(c)3 charged with the management and commercialization of the university’s intellectual property — but this activity was its only function. As a glaring example of why such a structure was far from ideal, research agreements with industry sponsors were done by 16 different groups, across KU’s two campuses. T