Research Program Overview
The College of Engineering invites industry to partner with our faculty on research projects of mutual interest. Reasons to collaborate include: the need for access to particular research expertise that can be provided by College faculty; the wish to stay abreast of contemporary research and to have access to students educated in such research and a desire to help maintain high-quality research capabilities that may be too expensive to keep in-house.
Industry Involvement Opportunities
Consulting Relations
These are individually negotiated agreements for faculty research services to a particular company, conducted outside University channels. The University allows up to one day per week for faculty to carry out these activities, and they can negotiate any fee structure acceptable to both faculty and the industrial sponsor. Because these arrangements are outside the University structure, confidentiality and intellectual property arrangements can be easily resolved. No University resources can be used to carry out work under a consultation agreement. Faculty members are required to report the names of companies and the time committed to each consultation as well as the total time committed to all such arrangements.
Research Grants
If a corporation is interested in the research area being investigated by a particular faculty member or research group, it may provide funding in the form of an unrestricted grant to support the work. In such a case, there can be no deliverables as a result of the support; however, there are no indirect costs charged by the University. A faculty member would ordinarily provide a courtesy progress report on the work being done with such support.
Research Contracts
This is the most common arrangement for medium to large research programs. A proposal is normally prepared by the faculty member or group intent on carrying out a research project. The proposal is processed through the UT Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP), which checks for compliance with University, state, and Board of Regents requirements. Issues of intellectual property, reporting and deliverables, and costs may be addressed at this stage.
The University is required to charge an indirect cost rate on research contracts; this is presently at a rate of 50 percent of Modified Total Direct Costs (all direct costs except for capital equipment and student tuition and fees). These contracts can range from simple documents to complex agreements, and are dependent on the nature of the proposed research. If development of intellectual property is expected as part of the contract research, then a separate Sponsored Research Agreement (SRA) can be negotiated at the time the proposal is being considered, or can be negotiated at the time intellectual property is developed. OSP has various SRA's tailored to specific classes of research, and these can be used as convenient starting points for an agreement. If an SRA is adopted, then negotiation time can be greatly reduced.
Intellectual Property Concerns
The University is required by state law and by Regents rules (as well as certain IRS requirements pertaining to tax exempt status) to maintain ownership of all intellectual property developed by faculty, staff, or students on campus, including such intellectual property developed under industrial research sponsorship. This requirement often causes potential sponsors to reconsider research support. However, the policy is seldom a barrier, because the University is usually willing to provide exclusive or nonexclusive licensing of intellectual property to research sponsors under reasonable terms.
Research Costs
Research expenditures normally include the support of graduate students through Research Assistantships (RA's). These assistantships cover salary, fringe benefits, overhead (indirect costs), and tuition and fees, at a total cost of about $35,000 per year. Any necessary equipment, travel, supplies, faculty/staff salaries, or other research expenses will further increase the costs.
The charges noted above are typical of large public research universities. For further assistance, please contact Dr. Randall Charbeneau, Associate Dean for Reseach.
Contact Information
Dr.
Randall Charbeneau
Associate
Dean for Research
Office: (512) 471-2125
Fax: (512) 475-8663
Web: http://www.engr.utexas.edu/research/index.cfm