Forging Successful Industry Collaborations: A Stony Brook University Case Study

What you will learn:

• Anatomy of a great partnership:
  • Identifying the wants, needs of the university, founders, and potential partners
    • Tips for breaking the ice and getting the ball rolling
    • Navigating expectations, terms and conditions
• Educating corporations on limitations faced by universities in terms of:
  • Ownership of IP
  • Assignment of rights
  • Equity standards
• Overview of MicroRid, how it worked with SBU (goals, mission, objective of relationship, the academic perspective)
• Insight into the creation of Traverse, as well as interactions with SBU throughout its commercialization effort
• Taking a deep dive into each relationship, dos and don’ts, lessons learned

If you work in a TTO or industry engagement office these days, the terms “partnership” and “collaboration” are a big part of your workplace vocabulary – and a big part of your job. In the increasingly partnership-driven ecosystem, discussions with industry-related entities are more often than not geared toward complex long-term collaborations that rely on solid relationships with faculty, whether in industry-sponsored research, licensing, or even in nurturing faculty start-ups.

The most fruitful partnerships are multi-dimensional and can combine research funding, licensing revenue, and critical economic development benefits for your local region, so it’s worth learning about how these collaborations develop and what makes them work most effectively. Stony Brook University has built highly prized partnerships with two companies that started in the university’s own labs: Traverse Biosciences Inc. and MicroRid. Each company’s leadership teams, along with representatives from SBU, will share their story, their lessons learned, and their keys to long-term collaborative success in this during this one-hour presentation.

This webinar will provide critical insights on how you can craft equally successful industry partnerships — and grow licensing revenues, research dollars, and regional economic benefits for years to come.

Moderator David Hamilton, Director of Programs for Economic Development with SBU, will lead a discussion delving into the complex intersection of university research and industry collaboration. This interactive, Q&A driven session will cover success stories that illustrate how to forge deeper ties between industry and university researchers. Mr. Hamilton will be speaking with Brian McCarthy and Maurizio Del Poeta about their industry/academic partnerships that underlies their exciting start-up, MicroRid, and its licensing of Stony Brook University technology. Brian will discuss the corporate side of this relationship and Maurizio will bring to light the critical academic side.

Joe Scaduto, Founder and CEO of Traverse Biosciences Inc., joins the panel to talk about his strong relationship with Stony Brook University through his role as external BioEntrepreneur-In-Residence (B-EIR), which led to an exciting journey that ultimately brought him to license Stony Brook technology and become Traverse’s founder and CEO.

Program Leaders