Managers of Innovation and Commercial Development are located in the Executive Deans' Offices in the Faculties of Arts; Business, Economics and Law; Engineering, Architecture & Information Technology; Health Sciences; Natural Resources; Agriculture and Veterinary Science; Science; and Social and Behavioural Sciences.

There are also Managers for the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre and University Institutes: Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB); Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN); and Queensland Brain Institute (QBI).

These Managers are able to assist their staff and students in the following areas.

Commercialisation Education

The Managers provide or organise workshops and seminars throughout the year. Topics include commercialisation pathways, intellectual property, negotiation, consulting, setting up a business and other topics requested by Schools/Centres/Institutes. The Managers provide general information about commercialisation on each of their Faculty's web pages, under 'Research' and have information leaflets available to help with common questions, such as the patenting process.

Technology Assessment

The Managers can facilitate confidential assessments of planned or ongoing research to assist researchers in determining if their work is of potential commercial value. If the work is commercially promising, the Managers help with strategies to identify possible industry partners for collaborative grant applications and research contracts or sources of pre-seed, seed and venture capital.

Intellectual Property Rights

The effective management of intellectual property rights underpins the commercial potential of UQ's technologies. Thus, core activities for the Managers are identifying patentable ideas with inventors, liaison with patent attorneys and management of patents.

Marketing

The Managers help UQ to establish and manage a network of industrial, government, media and tertiary sector contacts for potential collaborations, commercial deals and so on. They also carry out market research and develop marketing plans for specific business ideas and technologies in the Faculties.

Deal Negotiation

UQ looks for commercialisation strategies that create the greatest value in the longer term. This usually involves identifying companies best able to take our product to market but for new technologies, it may mean starting up a company. When suitable business partners have been found for licensing technology, joint ventures, sponsorship of research programs, contractual use of the research expertise of the Faculties, or investment, the Managers help in creating and negotiating deals to achieve the best possible arrangement for the parties.

Monitoring
Faculty technology commercialisation activities require ongoing monitoring to ensure technical milestones for research and payments for their achievement are made on schedule. In addition, the Managers monitor the global patent and commercial environment for alerts to new technologies that might impinge upon or complement research at UQ.

Reward Sharing

The Managers participate in ensuring that monies due to researchers and Schools/Centres/Institutes from contracts are paid according to agreed schedules and to the correct parties. They are likewise involved with the commercialisation income from patented inventions, which is distributed according to current UQ practice to inventors, Schools/Centres/Institutes and UQ.

Contact details for these Managers are available from UniQuest.

 

Research Directors

Research Directors in Institutes and Faculties are also available to assist with matters relating to research and research grants. The names of Research Directors are available in the Membership and Secretariat document for the Research Committee on the Academic Board website.