Contact: Will Sansom, UT Health Science Center, (210) 567-2579
Mark Hendricks, Texas State University, (512) 245-2180
SAN ANTONIO (June 1, 2011) — South Texas Technology Management (STTM), a regional technology transfer office that assists four University of Texas institutions, today announced it will provide services for a new member: Texas State University-San Marcos.
STTM and Texas State signed a contract for STTM to assist with management of Texas State inventions and support Texas State’s Office for Commercialization and Industry Relations (OCIR) to promote and help manage the university’s intellectual property portfolio.
STTM is a University of Texas full-service regional technology transfer office. Prior to adding Texas State, STTM’s membership included the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, UT San Antonio, UT Brownsville and UT-Pan American.
“We are excited about Texas State’s endorsement of this regional model for technology management and commercialization of intellectual property from Texas public universities,” said STTM Executive Director Arjun Sanga, J.D., assistant vice president for technology transfer at the UT Health Science Center. “We look forward to a long-standing, productive partnership.”
The mission of the OCIR is to coordinate Texas State’s commercialization and industrial activities, to enhance and promote its applied research and development activities, to assist in the capture of commercial research and development funding, to enhance the university’s entrepreneurial platform, and to provide resources for the support and enhancement of education with relevance. STTM will assist with OCIR’s mission through invention management, invention marketing, faculty education and start-up company support.
“STTM brings a wealth of intellectual property and commercialization experience to the technologies that are being developed at Texas State to help move them out of the laboratories and into state-of-the art products and services that benefit both the public and the growing San Marcos region,” said Billy Covington, Ph.D., chief research officer at Texas State University.
Dr. Covington will join Brian Herman, Ph.D., vice president for research at the UT Health Science Center; Robert Gracy, Ph.D., vice president for research at UTSA; Luis Colom, M.D., Ph.D., vice president for research at UT Brownsville; Wendy Lawrence-Fowler, Ph.D., vice provost of research and sponsored projects at UT-Pan American; and Sanga on the STTM Governance Council.
STTM is funded by the member institutions and by the return from commercializing inventions. Having Texas State in the fold creates more collaborative opportunities for commercializing university technologies, Sanga said.
The STTM model works on economies of scale, allowing each of the institutions access to a full-service technology transfer office that any one of the institutions alone might otherwise not be able to afford. Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., executive vice chancellor for health affairs of The University of Texas System, provided start-up funding.
About STTM: STTM is the UT technology transfer office serving institutions in South Texas. STTM provides leadership in promoting innovation and technology transfer through proactive management of intellectual property, technology development and commercialization to support the missions of member institutions, to advance regional economic development and to benefit the public. Please refer to www.utsttm.org to learn more about STTM or other innovative UT technologies.