ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The number of new technologies, licensing agreements and business startups increased at the University of Michigan last year, according to the U-M Office of Technology Transfer’s newly released 2003 annual report.

During fiscal year 2003, which ended invention disclosures from U-M researchers (up 8 percent from the previous year), 76 new license agreements with corporate partners (up 25 percent) and $9.1 million in revenues (up 60 percent).

In addition, nine new business startups were launched with U-M technologies last year, bringing the total number of U-M startups launched over the last five years to 36. More than 80 percent of these startups are still in operation and more than three-fourths of these continue to be headquartered in Michigan, mostly in the greater Ann Arbor area.

"We are very pleased with the increasing number of U-M inventions that have reached the marketplace to benefit the general public," said Ken Nisbet, executive director of U-M Tech Transfer. "These accomplishments are due to the quality of our research community, our supportive business partners and our hard-working tech transfer staff. We’re proud to be of service to our University and our community."

Nisbet says the degree of success in technology transfer—the transfer of inventions from a university to the marketplace where they can benefit the general public—is measured by the number of new technologies, patents, agreements and business startups generated each year, along with revenues produced by existing agreements. The quality of service to university inventors and business partners and the contribution to regional and national economic development are equally important, he adds.

The new 2003 U-M tech transfer annual report reviews the process used to transfer technology, features results from 2003 activities and chronicles seven examples of successful technology transfer.

Examples include FluMist, an inhaled flu vaccine that originated from research at the U-M School of Public Health; Intralase, a startup company based on applying femto-second laser technology at U-M’s College of Engineering to laser eye surgery research at U-M’s Kellogg Eye Center; and Interlink Networks, a startup originating from research at MERIT Networks, in collaboration with the University, that applies networking technology toward wired and wireless security applications.

The report can be downloaded from the Office of Technology Transfer’s Web site at www.techtransfer.umich.edu.