Alliances

For Faculty

Corporate and Foundation Research Alliances serves faculty across the U-M research enterprise by providing connections, strategy and negotiation support for corporate and foundation sponsored research. We specialize in research opportunities with commercial applications that emphasize intellectual property, licensing and business considerations.

What We Do

We partner with faculty to understand their goals, and work diligently to find common ground between their goals and those of the industry or foundation sponsor to negotiate and establish mutually beneficial research partnerships.

Why We Do It

We play a unique role in the campus research ecosystem by providing faculty-focused opportunity evaluation and negotiation support before and after the submission of a Proposal Approval Form (PAF) to the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects. Pre-PAF discussions with companies and foundations relating to intellectual property, licensing and business terms are often important for framing the project budget, statement of work and deliverables in a manner that is most likely to yield successful outcomes for both faculty and our industry and foundation partners.

When to Engage with Us

We are here to assist faculty exploring corporate and foundation sponsored research relationships at any stage in the process, from early ideation, to negotiation of IP, licensing and business terms through agreement execution.

For Industry

Corporate and Foundation Research Alliances is the University’s destination for corporate partners seeking research collaborations with faculty that emphasize the translation of novel ideas and discoveries to commercial applications.

Who We Work With

We work with companies large and small, national and international, who are seeking to sponsor innovative faculty-led research efforts on a project by project basis, or as part of a larger strategic research alliance.

What We Do

We work with corporate partners to understand their research needs, connect them with U-M faculty whose expertise and goals best align with those needs and support discussion and negotiation to launch new research projects and alliances.

Why We Do It

We understand that the modern landscape of industry-university research collaboration merges interests and activity relating to faculty research expertise, laboratory capabilities, inventions and faculty start-up companies. In bringing direct access to each of these areas under the umbrella of Innovation Partnerships, we align essential internal capabilities including institutional knowledge, domain expertise and negotiation capabilities to more efficiently and effectively create, grow and sustain research partnerships and alliances that maximize benefit for both our faculty and our industry collaborators.

Certainty at Michigan

In response to industry and to researcher feedback that new models would catalyze research partnerships, Innovation Partnerships created the Certainty at Michigan Program to institute various new licensing models that will provide greater certainty on IP outcomes and expedite the execution of sponsored research agreements.

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