Penn research leads the way across iBridge

Penn is leading the way for research in nanotechnology.

About 900 Penn-based innovations are listed on iBridge Network, an online forum to facilitate an exchange between researchers and companies looking to license new technology.

The site was launched in 2005 by the Kauffman Foundation, one of the largest in the country that supports innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Web site was pilot tested with seven universities including Cornell University, Columbia University, Washington University at St. Louis and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In February 2007, the team responsible for creating the site remodeled it based on feedback gathered over two years. The site now includes 68 universities. In the past three months alone, membership has increased 65 percent.

"We are a nonprofit organization, interested only in increasing the rate of innovation," said Laura Paglione, director of iBridge Network. "We serve as a catalyst and facilitator between different academic groups."

Paglione said the Web site is especially helpful for federally-funded research that falls under the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which gave U.S. universities, small businesses and nonprofit organizations rights to their inventions and other intellectual property that resulted from such funding.

The iBridge team hopes to share information related to a large number of research materials and expose it to potential commercialization, Paglione said. She added that it is a good forum for a researcher to find sponsorship.

In almost all cases, the innovations are uploaded to the Web site through a university's technology-transfer office, Paglione explained. This allows the innovations to be posted on the site at the discretion of the university.

"This extra layer of scrutiny ensures that no prior claims have been made on the technology," she said, adding that they have had no infringement problems to date.

Another feature on the site, called iBNewsfeed, allows members to subscribe to searches so they are notified through e-mail when innovations meeting their specifications are uploaded.

"This Web site seems to be very helpful to students conducting research," said Ritwik Raj, an Engineering graduate student, "as long as the issues of privacy and discretion concerning new technology are not threatened."

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