Sponsoring Research

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TDG Mission

The Technology Development Group (TDG) is uniquely positioned to help your company identify research and collaboration opportunities across the UCLA research enterprise. Working together with our licensing and technology transfer professionals, our Industry Sponsored Research Team stands ready to help connect you with UCLA’s faculty researchers leading research teams across every type of scientific and technical discipline. Our mission is to promote the capabilities and capacity of the UCLA research community and make connections with industry in areas of shared interest.

Matching Company Interests to UCLA Capabilities – Whether it is identifying the project team at UCLA ready to work with your company to pursue an identified research objective or providing a window into the interdisciplinary capabilities of the UCLA research enterprise as a whole, TDG will be an active partner to help your company take full advantage of all that UCLA has to offer.

Crafting the Contract to the Project – Insisting on a “one size fits all” approach to research contracts is an easy way to let procedural differences get in the way of the shared interest in an identified scientific pursuit. TDG is committed to working with your company to structure research and license terms using creative models to expedite project start dates and facilitate rapid technology transfer.

Translating Innovation to Licensing Opportunities – Housing our sponsored research and technology transfer/licensing teams together provides companies a single point of contact to both structure the research contract and address the opportunities available for any resulting innovations. Whether your company’s initial interest is in an existing technology opportunity that could benefit from additional research or if you want visibility into the prosecution and licensing process of technology generated from the sponsored project, TDG is ready to work with your company to explore all of the available options and find the best structure to match your interest in UCLA’s innovation and research pipeline.

 

Frequent Areas of Discussion in Sponsored Research

Regardless of the form or source of the contract itself, some of the same issues surface when discussing the terms of a research project. TDG has existing templates available and is also ready to work with your company-authored documents. Below is an outline of frequent areas of discussion that we look forward to speaking with your company about at greater depth to inform our work towards the right contract to match the project.

Research Results and Deliverables

Our contracts will always include a mechanism for reporting the progress and overall outcomes of a sponsored research project, usually in the form of a report or reports as a tangible deliverable. A sponsor will have the right to use technical information contained in such reports for any internal research purpose, with the right to include such information in a product or service for sale available as part of a broader license to intellectual property generated in the project.

Translating Innovation to Licensing Opportunities

Our position is always that ownership of new intellectual property produced in the performance of university research should simply follow inventorship as defined under U.S. patent law. To the extent UCLA has any interest in that new intellectual property, the reimbursement of patent costs allows for the option to negotiate an appropriate exclusive or non-exclusive license for commercial use.

TDG has developed extensive relationships with patent counsel across every field and industry, and has documented success working with companies of every size and structure on cooperative and transparent patent prosecutions. Where UCLA is the sole owner of intellectual property continued reimbursement of patent costs afford sponsor transparency and notice throughout the term of the consideration and negotiation of an option to that technology, and where UCLA and the Sponsor share ownership interest the parties will work to craft a cooperative prosecution plan or assure reasonable notice prior to any independent prosecution activity.

Budgeting/Payment

Unlike many other institutions, UCLA provides the same financial terms to industry sponsors as we do federal sponsors at rates established by our cognizant federal auditor via our federally-negotiated indirect cost rate agreement. UCLA’s standard research indirect cost rate is equivalent to or below that of both public and private peer research institutions across the country. 

Final budgets and payment schedules will be negotiated between your company, TDG and the campus department at cost only (time, supplies, equipment, etc.) and will not include any tax, fee or mark-up based on the size or status of your company.

How Can TDG Help Your Company?

We look forward to speaking with you and identifying the next great research opportunity at UCLA. Please contact our Industry Sponsored Research Officers to start the negotiation process and identify the best next steps.

If a Nondisclosure Agreement would help to facilitate a productive conversation you can sign our standard NDA HERE or can work with you on your template document.

If you’re not sure where to begin, please don’t hesitate to contact the Interim Director of Industry Sponsored Research Karla Zepeda. We look forward to working with you! 

Contact Karla Zepeda