OSU’s Cowboy Innovations recognized for technology transfer achievements

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Media Contact: Harrison Hill | Senior Research Communications Specialist | 405-744-5827 | harrison.c.hill@okstate.edu

Oklahoma State University was named to the top 10 among peer universities in Heartland Forward’s recent report: ‘Research to Renewal: Advancing University Tech Transfer.’

“Getting new solutions into the marketplace is a critical way that OSU research benefits society. Our technology commercialization team works hard every day to ensure innovations developed here at OSU are successfully transferred from the laboratory into the market,” said Kenneth Sewell, vice president for research.

The report ranked all U.S. universities in the following areas:

Invention disclosure
Licenses and options issued
Gross licensing income
Startups formed
Academic works citing patents
STEM bachelor’s graduates and STEM master’s graduates.

In the overall ranking OSU was placed 82nd out of about 280 universities, said Jai Rajendran, technology and business development manager at Cowboy Innovations — OSU’s office for technology commercialization. However, some of the areas measured end up being related to how much a university spends on research, this can leave the overall placement unbalanced.

To better illustrate the quantity of tech transfer relative to the university's size, Heartland Forward also ranks universities with similar research budgets and among its peers, OSU is ranked 10th, Rajendran said.

Heartland Forward describes itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit "think and do tank" focused on improving economic performance in the center of the United States. Based in Bentonville, Arkansas, Heartland Forward’s work focuses on the entire Heartland region, which is comprised of 20 states.

“Technology commercialization offices in universities play an important role in transferring new knowledge created through research at the university to the industry,” Rajendran said. “Our office is very pleased to be ranked in the top 10 universities with similar research expenditure.

“We thank the inventors at OSU and our industry partners for enabling us to achieve this recognition.”