McMaster joins one of nation’s largest consortia for technology transfer

It's the first of its kind in Canada a unique and forward-thinking agreement that situates McMaster in a cluster of research excellence.
McMaster University has partnered with the University of Western Ontario, the University of Guelph and the University of Waterloo to create one of the nation's largest consortia for technology transfer.
The four universities signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) this week to collaboratively protect and commercialize technologies deriving from research at each institution.
Technology transfer is a booming business: the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) reports that gross license income was more than $1.2 billion from more than 200 institutions in 2002, with another $1 billion in running royalties. This MOU puts the consortium on par with the largest technology transfer institutions in the United States.
The initiative is based on a joint vision for co-ordination, co-operation, collaboration and commercialization – hence the working name C4. By sharing resources and expertise, the universities hope to establish broader partnerships, apply jointly for funding opportunities and more effectively market and commercialize technologies. The C4 also plans to extend an invitation to other universities in southwestern Ontario, further expanding the local commercialization network.
McMaster University is recognized and ranked nationally as a first-class research and educational institution, with a research enterprise that has nearly tripled over the last ten years.
“Collectively, our four universities represent a very significant research capacity. Almost 40 per cent of the sponsored research income in Canada comes from the 19 universities in Ontario. It's impressive, then, when you consider that our C4 group alone attracted 35 per cent of those Ontario research dollars,” says Mamdouh Shoukri, vice-president, research & international affairs.
“Moving our knowledge out of our laboratories and putting it into practical use is a primary goal for our institutions. By sharing our resources and knowledge, this consortium will allow us to be even more effective in delivering competitive advantage to industry and others,” Shoukri says.
The C4 universities will benefit from having the ability to draw upon the best resources and strengths from each institution. “Working together allows us to tap into a wider talent pool by maximizing each other's areas of expertise, which makes this a significant venture for each institution,” says Nils Petersen, Western's vice-president research. “As a consortium, our probability of linking to appropriate channels in the private sector increases and this will enhance our commercialization output.”
The MOU will provide a framework for enhancing the universities' ability to work collaboratively toward obtaining federal and provincial support for individual and joint projects, thereby making them more attractive to funding organizations. This is increasingly important due to the need for research contributions from widely divergent areas. “We have long been advocating that institutions can improve their knowledge transfer by working with partners and by building on innovation strengths within geographic regions,” says Paul Guild, vice-president university research at the University of Waterloo. “There is much to learn about how to support our campus innovators; we will learn more quickly if we do so together.”
This approach will also allow for the packaging of complementary products to increase the marketability of many technologies. “The research and innovation capacity collectively represented by our four universities is being strategically positioned to better capture opportunities for knowledge transfer and commercialization,” says Alan Wildeman, vice-president research at the University of Guelph. “Alignment of our technology transfer capacity will create one of Canada's strongest beacons for transforming discoveries into value, and enable us to collectively pursue opportunities and resources for enhancing the commercialization of university research.”