The Chronicle of Higher Education

Tech-Transfer Scorecard

These are the highest-ranking institutions in various measures of performance in technology transfer. See Note for additional information.

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Number of U.S. patent applications filed per $1-million spending on research
RANK INSTITUTION NUMBER
1 U of Akron 1.6
2 California Institute of Technology 1.1
3 Brigham Young U 1.0
4 Thomas Jefferson U 0.8
5 Arizona State U 0.7
6 East Carolina U 0.7
7 Princeton U 0.6
8 U of Maryland-Baltimore County 0.6
9 U of Maryland at College Park 0.5
10 Georgia Institute of Technology 0.5
11 Loyola U Medical Center (Ill) 0.5
12 Iowa State U 0.5
13 Stanford U 0.5
14 U of Alabama at Birmingham 0.5
15 U of Virginia Patents Foundation 0.5
16 Rutgers U 0.5
17 Pennsylvania State U 0.5
18 U of Utah 0.5
19 Kansas State U Research Foundation 0.4
20 Kent State U 0.4
21 U of Florida 0.4
22 Brandeis U 0.4
23 Ohio U 0.4
24 Michigan State U 0.4
25 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 0.4
26 Mississippi State U 0.4
27 Cornell Research Foundation 0.4
28 Brown U Research Foundation 0.4
29 U of South Florida 0.4
30 Lehigh U 0.4
31 Columbia U 0.4
32 Harvard U 0.4
33 Oregon Health Sciences U 0.4
34 U of New Mexico Science & Technology Corp 0.4
35 New Jersey Institute of Technology 0.3
36 U of Kentucky Research Foundation 0.3
37 U of Southern California 0.3
38 U of California System 0.3
39 Wake Forest U 0.3
40 U of Chicago, ARCH Development Corp 0.3
41 U of Cincinnati 0.3
42 Purdue Research Foundation 0.3
43 U of Minnesota 0.3
44 Medical College of Ohio 0.3
45 Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, U of Wisconsin, Madison 0.3
46 Tufts U 0.3
47 U of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas 0.3
48 U of Pennsylvania 0.3
49 Duke U 0.3
50 U of South Alabama 0.3
51 Southern Illinois U at Carbondale 0.3
52 Temple U 0.3
53 U of Maryland at Baltimore 0.3
54 U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 0.3
55 Northwestern U 0.3
56 U of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio 0.3
57 Emory U 0.3
58 Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties 0.3
59 Vanderbilt U 0.3
60 U of Iowa Research Foundation 0.3
61 U of Louisville 0.3
62 State U of New York Research Foundation 0.3
63 U of Michigan 0.3
64 Yale U 0.2
65 Washington U in St. Louis 0.2
66 U of Connecticut 0.2
67 Montana State U 0.2
68 Michigan Technological U 0.2
69 U of Oregon 0.2
70 Dartmouth College 0.2
71 Johns Hopkins U 0.2
72 U of Delaware 0.2
73 U of Rochester 0.2
74 U of Pittsburgh 0.2
75 New York U 0.2
76 U of Nebraska at Lincoln 0.2
77 U of Texas at Austin 0.2
78 U of Arkansas at Fayetteville 0.2
79 Washington Research Foundation, U of Washington 0.2
80 Auburn U 0.2
81 Indiana U (Advanced Research Technology Institute) 0.2
82 Baylor College of Medicine 0.2
83 U of Georgia 0.2
84 U of Tennessee Research Corp. 0.2
85 Carnegie Mellon U 0.2
86 Idaho Research Foundation, U of Idaho 0.2
87 U of Houston 0.2
88 U of Dayton 0.2
89 North Dakota State U 0.2
90 Texas A&M U System 0.2
91 Ohio State U 0.2
92 North Carolina State U 0.2
93 Tulane U 0.2
94 U of Hawaii 0.2
95 Case Western Reserve U 0.2
96 U of Illinois, Chicago and Urbana-Champaign 0.2
97 Florida State U 0.2
98 Oregon State U 0.2
99 New Mexico State U 0.1
100 Syracuse U 0.1
101 U of Rhode Island 0.1
102 New York Medical College 0.1
103 U of New Orleans 0.1
104 San Diego State U 0.1
105 U of Texas Health Science Center at Houston 0.1
106 U of Kansas 0.1
107 Wayne State U 0.1
108 Wright State U 0.1
109 Colorado State U 0.1
110 U of Montana 0.1
111 U of Miami 0.1
112 Oklahoma State U 0.1
113 U of Arizona 0.1
114 U of Maine 0.1
115 U of New Hampshire 0.1
116 Clemson U 0.1
117 U of Massachusetts 0.0
By seeking patents, institutions build their portfolios of intellectual property for eventual licensing. Sometimes a licensee will ask an institution to apply for numerous patents on an invention with many uses.

Number of inventions disclosed per $1-million spending on research
Number of U.S. patent applications filed per $1-million spending on research
Licenses and options executed relative to number of inventions disclosed
Licensing income per dollar of research spending
Average income per license
Universities that formed the most start-up companies
Number of start-up companies formed per $10-million spending on research

 RELATED MATERIAL:

Browseable lists of licensing revenues and patent activity at universities, 1998-2000
SOURCE: Chronicle analysis
Research assistance by Matthew Bassow, Anne Millar Wiebe, and Seth Perry

Note: Data used for these charts come from the five most recent annual surveys conducted by the Association of University Technology Managers and cover 1996 through 2000. Only institutions that reported data in at least four of the five years were included. The charts are intended as a five-year snapshot, but in some cases, the activities in years not included in the data may affect the ratios. For example, a license executed in 1997 could have been based on a disclosure from 1994. An institution's ratios could also be affected if the surveys did not contain information for all categories in all years.