Penn State is behind its peers when it comes to commercializing its research, according to a report to the university's trustees, but it's making a push to change that and help more faculty move their research to market.
Andrew Read, Penn State’s senior vice president for research, told a trustees committee Thursday that while Penn State is one of the biggest universities when it comes to doing research, that doesn't translate to being a leader in moving research to development.
“We are one of the biggest and one of the least successful in tech transfer," Read said.
Now, the university is hoping to change that, implementing what Read said is a roadmap to “radically improve our performance” in research commercialization. He said one goal is increasing the university's revenue from research commercialization from $4 million in 2024 to $13 million, which is 1% of its overall research expenditures.
“We’re going to have to put a lot of effort in up front to get long-term gains," he said.
One strategy on the roadmap is expanding funding for commercialization and startups, including by encouraging faculty to apply for seed funding through the university's Commercialization GAP Fund.
“The industry doesn’t do speculative high-risk, very-low-chance-of-success work. They leave that to us," Read said.
Read pointed to one example of Penn State research already being tested out: LionGlass, which is stronger and lighter than regular glass with less carbon emission from production.
“So it will change the way we do bottling, the way we build buildings, all of that," Read said. "So it’s good for the environment, good for the bottom line for the companies and probably will lead to some very very interesting changes in architecture. That’s the sort of impact we want to have.”
He cautioned that the investments will take time to generate revenue. And, Penn State's push comes as it and other universities are facing research funding cuts under the Trump administration.
