Ian Phillips: vice president for research, University of South Florida, Tampa
By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published December 15, 2003
Q. How is USF, which receives more than $250-million a year in research grants, trying to encourage entrepreneurialism among its faculty?
I hired Rod Casto, an entrepreneur who was also an academic, as vice president of economic development. He had run his own business, Hyperion Medical, in Orlando, which he sold. Previously, he was on the faculty at University of California, San Diego. So he's the kind of person who can relate to faculty and the business world.
Q. Does it take a certain change in mindset for professors to move their discoveries from the university labs to the marketplace?
Oh, yes. For instance, my career has been in basic science, in physiology, at the University of Florida and I personally never patented anything for 25 years. Then I started to get patents five years ago, and now I have six. Whether any of those are marketable, we'll see.
Faculty should realize that universities need support from other sources than the state or big agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the only other source is for the university to have royalties.
In my case, I was pretty impressed by the royalties of some of my colleagues, particularly one who patented an antiglaucoma drug which is now made by Merck. He happened to be my neighbor. And while he was a very modest man, who has unfortunately since died, his wife is enjoying the benefits.
I think most scientists want to be able to translate research in the lab into a drug that really helps people. The money's nice but almost a side issue.
Q. How easy is it for a USF faculty member to get patents and work out a licensing arrangement with the university?
We're making our patent office very user-friendly, and USF is very generous with its royalty agreements. We give faculty 45 percent of the royalties on any patent. Ten percent of the royalties stays with the researcher's department for future developments. The university retains 45 percent.
We've just hired a person to do marketing of licenses, and his job will be to knock on researchers' doors, ask what they're doing, encourage them to patent, then look for markets.
When I look back at my time at the University of Florida (where he was associate vice president of research before joining USF in February), I think you get a big winner every 10 years.
