Survey of Sponsored Research Agreements Between the Private Sector & Higher Education (PDF)

This 150-page study presents data from 20 higher education institutions, predominantly major research universities, about their sponsored research agreements with private sector entities. The study imparts to its readers key data about trends in the number of agreements, their dollar volume, and the technologies most involved in such arrangements.The report gives data on trends in use of staff time for university departments entrusted with reaching and overseeing sponsored research agreements, including time spent pursuing agreements with overseas partners, time spent on marketing, and much more.The study helps its readers to answer questions such as: what percentage of sponsored research volume is accounted for by overseas partners? By partners who have had a research relationship with the university previously? By clinical trials? By agreements in materials science, or information technology, or medicine/healthcare? How effective are universities in estimating their costs in sponsored research agreements?Other issues covered include the use of liability insurance, billing questions, and what happens to projects when principal investigators leave the project for any reason?Data is broken out by many useful criteria including type of university, level of annual patent and licensing revenue, public or private status, enrollment and other factors.