Building Partnerships
Strong engagement with industry and venture partners are essential to ensuring that Duke innovations reach the marketplace for the benefit of society.
In collaboration with the Office for External Partnerships, our technology marketing, licensing and new ventures teams work closely with our external partners to facilitate the transfer of Duke innovations from the lab to the marketplace.
Impact of our Partnerships
Partnerships can take many forms - from a licensing agreement, sponsored research agreement or an investment in one of our new ventures. In FY21, we entered into 118 agreements with our partners to bring Duke innovations to the commercial marker. We look forward to exploring ways we can work together.
Technologies Ready for Collaboration
We have over 500 technologies from various fields and at various stages of development that are currently available – and our inventors are interested in collaborating on. We add new techs every week, so see if anything catches your eye.
Working with Us
Industry-University Partnerships often include a transactional agreement
Option Agreements, or option clauses within research agreements, describe the conditions under which the University preserves the opportunity for a third party to negotiate a license for Intellectual Property. Option clauses are often provided in a Sponsored Research Agreement to corporate research sponsors or are entered into with third parties wishing to evaluate the technology prior to entering into a license agreement.
License Agreements describe the rights and responsibilities of a party related to the use and exploitation of Intellectual Property developed at the University. University license agreements stipulate that the licensee should diligently seek to bring the intellectual property into commercial use for the public good and provide a reasonable return to the University.
Inter-Institutional Agreements describe the terms under which two or more parties (e.g., often between two universities) collaborate to assess, protect, market, license and share in the revenues received from licensing jointly owned Intellectual Property.
Non-Disclosure Agreements, Material Transfer Agreements and Sponsored Research Agreements are summarized here.
Technology transfer from the lab to the commercial market typically include a licensing agreement.
License agreements describe the rights and responsibilities related to the use and exploitation of intellectual property developed at the University. University license agreements usually stipulate that the licensee should diligently seek to bring the intellectual property into commercial use for the public good and provide a reasonable return to the University.
Learn More about our License ConsiderationsInterested in partnering with our inventors on a research project that will make a difference in society?
A Research Agreement is a contract that governs the relationship between the University and a third-party which may fund your lab to support a project of any nature. OTC does not handle Research Agreements at the University, but we do work with appropriate offices to negotiate language related to intellectual property. Please find below a link to the Office of Research Contracts at Duke that manages such agreements for the Medical School/Health System and Office of Research Support for the University. Project representatives from both these offices work closely with OTC on intellectual property issues in sponsored research agreements. If you have questions about sponsored research, please contact your project representative responsible for your unit.
Duke’s Office for External Partnerships (OEP) proactively engages with corporations and other potential external partners to understand their needs and match these to Duke assets by means of systematic outreach and internal scouting to identify and realize partnership opportunities originating with faculty, and to demonstrate value to Duke interests. OEP also establishes streamlined contracting processes to facilitate aspirations of faculty and expand opportunities for faculty to engage in industry relationships while enhancing quality control and risk management for contracting with industry.
Visit the Office for External Partnerships Site