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Technology Commercialization Award

Background

The Ohio Faculty Council (OFC) represents the faculty at all of the four-year public universities in the State of Ohio.  It addresses concerns common to faculty members across Ohio and presents a faculty perspective on major issues affecting higher education.  It is committed to supporting and bringing attention to the critical role that Ohio’s institutions of higher education play in revitalizing the economy of the State and the nation by attracting and training an educated workforce.

The OFC Technology Commercialization Award will be presented annually to recognize a faculty member in the state university system of Ohio for exceptional research discoveries and the role they have played in supporting the translation of these discoveries into marketable products and/or services that contribute to the economy or have significant societal benefit. The OFC celebrates the success of faculty in working toward creating a collaborative and resourceful statewide entrepreneurial ecosystem that allows high-potential companies to grow and prosper.

The winner of the 2023 OFC Technology Commercialization Award will be announced at the October meeting of the Ohio Faculty Council in Columbus, OH.

Eligibility

  1. Candidates for a Technology Commercialization Award must have had faculty status at the nominating institution (a state institution of higher education as defined within the Ohio Revised Code in Section 3345.011) during the 2022-2023 academic year.
  2. The nominating institution must have finalized a licensing agreement between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023, for intellectual property, copyrights, or other creative works that the faculty member played a role in creating.
  3. The licensed intellectual property must be in commercial us and demonstrating a meaningful positive impact on society.

Selection Criteria

  1. Nominators should confirm in general terms that the university has finalized a licensing agreement that involves an innovative product or service that will fill or is filling an important market need.
  2. Nominators should describe a viable commercialization pathway and timeline.
  3. Nominators should provide specific indications of the contribution of the commercialization activity toward creating a collaborative and resourceful statewide entrepreneurial ecosystem within the State of Ohio and beyond.
  4. Nominators should provide a description of the beneficial impact on society beyond economic impact describing the important problem(s) or needs it addresses on how its impacting society, the economy, and people's lives.
  5. Nominators should outline: sources of funding for the commercialization activity to date, plans to attract additional investment, describe any revenue generated to date, and the scope of growth potential.

Nominations

Each of the public four-year universities in Ohio may nominate up to two of its faculty members for the Technology Commercialization Award. One nomination can be made by the institution’s provost/chief academic officer and one nomination can be made by the president/chair of the university’s Faculty Senate/Academic Council.

Nominations must be accompanied by a completed nomination form. All information requested on the nomination form must be provided but nominators should also feel free to insert additional content and expand upon the required information.  Product-specific documents and marketing plans are not required but will be accepted and will be held in confidence if provided.

Deadline

Nominations must be submitted to the Ohio Faculty Council by 5:00 p.m., Friday, August 18, 2023.

Evaluation Process

The Ohio Faculty Council will impanel a committee comprised of accomplished venture capitalists, business leaders, university research officers, and technology transfer experts to evaluate all complete nominations submitted prior to the submission deadline.  The decisions of the review panel will be final.  Nominators will be notified of the outcome of the evaluation process at its conclusion.

Past Recipients

2022:

2021:

2020:

2019:

2018:

2017:

2016: