This report is available to TechPipeline Insiders. Learn how the Bayh-Dole Act has played an instrumental role in spurring academic technology transfer activities that serve as vital drivers of American innovation.
This report is available to TechPipeline Insiders. Learn how the Bayh-Dole Act has played an instrumental role in spurring academic technology transfer activities that serve as vital drivers of American innovation.
Before 1980, the federal government spent billions on research—only for the resulting inventions to collect dust in bureaucratic limbo. The Bayh-Dole Act flipped the script. By allowing universities and nonprofits to own and license inventions developed with federal R&D dollars, Bayh-Dole turned the U.S. research system into a dynamic engine of innovation.
The impact has been massive. In 2023 alone, U.S. universities and nonprofit research institutions filed over 25,000 invention disclosures, received nearly 7,400 patents, launched 903 start-ups, and executed over 92,000 licenses or options. From 1996 to 2020, these activities pumped $1.9 trillion into the U.S. economy and supported more than 6.5 million jobs. BayhDole doesn’t just make good science useful—it makes it economically powerful.
It also ensures that federally funded discoveries don’t languish in obscurity. Instead, they fuel local innovation ecosystems in every corner of the country, strengthening America’s leadership in life sciences, advanced manufacturing, AI, and clean energy. In a moment when U.S. competitiveness hangs in the balance, Bayh-Dole remains one of our most important tools for converting research into results.
