Innovation
Technology Transfer
Description: Technology transfer from Arizona State University and the University of Arizona is estimated through six measures: licensing income, licenses executed, number of start-up companies, patents filed, patents issued, and total research spending.
The six measures related to technology transfer at the University of Arizona and Arizona State University are presented on the dashboard. Each is expressed as a share of the national average, from 1997 through 2004.
Rationale: Research universities play an important role in innovation through idea generation and development. The data represent a “report card” of outcome measures rather than simply measuring the input of research expenditures. Research expenditures are included as a benchmark for comparison. A productivity rate can be implied by comparing the intensity of output with the intensity of input in the form of overall research expenditures.
Data Sources: The Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com/stats/archive/patents.htm (click on “Fiscal 2000”). The original source of the data is the Association of University Technology Transfer Managers (AUTM).
Comments on the Quality of the Data: The data are self reported by research institutions through their offices for technology transfer and are subject to inconsistencies induced by different reporting standards. The AUTM reports these commercialization metrics for all nonprofit research institutions, but the Chronicle of Higher Education focuses only on research universities.
