K-State Innovation Partners finishes year with successful economic engagement activity
Thursday, June 25, 2020
With the help of K-State Innovation Partners, fiscal year 2019 was a strong one for at Kansas State University in numbers of invention disclosures, patents and licensed technology.
MANHATTAN — K-State Innovation Partners ended fiscal year 2019 posting a total of 70 invention disclosures, as well as 15 patents and 26 licensed technologies. This activity provided more than $2.8 million in licensing revenue and more than $2.1 million in facilitated sponsored research to Kansas State University.
Fiscal year 2020 is also already looking bright with the organization reporting 69 invention disclosures, 22 patents and 34 license agreements through May 2020.
"Commercializing technology is one step in K-State's process of translating ideas, discoveries and technologies from the lab to the marketplace," said Chris Brandt, chief tech transfer officer. "The fiscal year 2019 commercialization successes are reflective of how K-State addresses the challenges facing society while also driving economic growth."
According to AUTM, a nonprofit comprising more than 3,000 members and more than 800 universities around the globe, K-State ranks in the Top 50 for intellectual property disclosures, total licensing revenue and license revenue per active license.
"In this time of economic uncertainty, it is more important than ever to protect innovations and license the technologies to existing companies and startups. Our emerging technologies can help current companies or be the foundation of new industries in Kansas," said Peter K. Dorhout, vice president for research.
In addition to technology commercialization efforts, to date, Innovation Partners has advanced economic development in the region by assisting with 174 economic partnerships, attracting 23 companies to establish or expand a presence in Kansas and launching or investing in 18 K-State-related companies.
"We want to bring the knowledge generated at the university to do what's best for Kansas businesses, families and prosperity," said Kent Glasscock, CEO of Innovation Partners. "We strive to take relationships beyond transactional to more strategic and ultimately leverage them into economic growth opportunities for the state."
Innovation Partners has created almost 600 new jobs in the region with average salaries of more than $56,000 and totaling more than $33 million in annual payroll.
"Innovation Partners continues to promote the successes of K-State faculty, researchers and students to ensure that technologies developed at K-State can get into the hands of the public where they can create jobs and improve lives," Glasscock said.
In fiscal year 2020, the Kansas State University Research Foundation and Institute for Commercialization merged to form K-State Innovation Partners. The merged organization continues to be committed to collaborating with university, industry and communities to deliver a streamlined mission of corporate engagement, technology commercialization and economic development.
