[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/milo.jpg” caption=”The Office of Research Contracts and Intellectual Property (ORCIP), is changing its name to the McMaster Industry Liaison Office (MILO). Photo by Sheldon Smart.”]Times change, people change, and so do McMaster departments. The McMaster department formerly known as ORCIP, the Office of Research Contracts and Intellectual Property, is changing its name to MILO, the McMaster Industry Liaison Office.

The new name captures the changing role the office plays for the McMaster community.

“We are increasingly focused on connecting McMaster to industry and business. Renaming ourselves McMaster Industry Liaison Office tries to capture that evolution,” says Elsie Quaite-Randall, MILO's executive director.

While MILO still administers research contracts and intellectual property protection, it has strengthened the latter's technology commercialization activities.

The increase in technology commercialization is an effort to meet one of the key objectives of McMaster's Strategic Research Plan to “develop the capacity for effective knowledge transfer to maximize the benefit of research to society.”

As McMaster's technology transfer arm, MILO helps move research success into commercial products and services that will eventually be available to the public. For example, the Respiratory Virus Panel that was created by James Mahony, a professor of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, and is now being sold around the world.

“Because it is now a commercially available product, Dr. Mahony's research will save many lives,” says Quaite-Randall. “The public benefits when McMaster discoveries become commercially available products.”

New Website:

To mark the transition to the new name, MILO has launched a new website: milo.mcmaster.ca.

The new site uses the latest McMaster templates and offers McMaster researchers detailed information about intellectual property, research contracts and technology commercialization.

MILO Presents:

You can learn more about technology commercialization on Wednesday, Feb. 20 when MILO staff will present several case studies at the Faculty of Health Sciences new employee orientation.

Services Offered by MILO:

Facilitates collaborative research