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Research Focus
The Unfair Advantage at RIT: Sponsored Research Services
An interview with RIT President Bill Destler and PAETEC ASG President Jack Baron
4/24/2008
CT: The pricing structure is fairly straightforward: $20,000 for one student and one faculty advisor. Is that money going towards the financial support of that faculty person and that graduate student?
Destler: Some of it, yes. It's shared between the faculty, the student and the institution. If there are other direct costs, for example, if we need to purchase some computers, that's covered as an additional fee. Supplies and equipment that we need to purchase, PAETEC would have to reimburse us for. The basic agreement for personnel is fairly simple.
CT: Does the company get veto power over the student or faculty member?
Destler: They don't have to agree to anything. The faculty and students don't have to agree either. This is totally voluntary on all parties. The goal is to get people together who are excited to work together, who think the projects are interesting, and who think they can make a contribution...
CT: It's such a new model. Can you point to any other school that has structured something as plain and straightforward as this?
Destler: Not that I know of, and that's why we did it. We want to try to put forward a new paradigm. I think the model will make some schools nervous. The schools most covetous of their intellectual property from their research activities are the ones with medical schools, because the greatest promise is for pharmaceutical and other medical specific devices, in terms of making money on them for institutional purposes.
I've already gotten a lot of interest in this program, not so much from other educational institutions, but from other companies who are increasingly saying, "Why wasn't this available five years ago?"
CT: What do faculty and students think?
Destler: The typical faculty reaction is one of great enthusiasm: "It's about time." Many of them have had experiences where they had worked out an agreement to do some work with a company and found the lawyers wouldn't sign the contract. So it's been frustrating them. In a few cases, [we have] faculty with well established research programs funded by the federal government. Under those circumstances, they get to keep the intellectual property, and they say, "Why should I give it up?" Our answer: This is an entirely voluntary program. We're not forcing anybody to do anything. We're providing another alternative to working with industry that will have attractions to academia and to industry. It's one of the arrows in our quiver.
CT: There are a number of documents on the web site, such as non-disclosures and other forms. Were these developed by RIT or was PAETEC involved?
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