UC Berkeley’s Research Partnerships

University of California, Berkeley Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Robert Price

UK-US Higher Education Forum.

December 1-2, 2011London

Many research collaborations/partnerships: No single Model

Socially Responsible Licensing

Energy Bioscience Institute

BEARS

Examples: Three different partnership models

Socially Responsible Licensing Program

increase external support for Berkeley research

support start-up company development by Berkeley researchers

maximize the societal benefit of Berkeley’s discoveries

affordable access in low income countries to products derived from Berkeley discoveries

Program begun in 2003 with Four Core Goals

(PDP) Product Development Partnership for Malaria Therapies

UC Berkeley Keasling Lab

Synthetic Biology startup company Institute for One World Health

Not for Profit

Funder

Big Pharma

Royalty free licenseRoyalty free license

Technology/synthetic anti-malarial drug (artemisinin)

$8M

$12M$22.6M

sub-license

(2009)

Begun in 2004

Drug distributed in 2012

Government

Industry

Foundations

UC Berkeley

InternationalAgencies

NGOs

Start-ups

University is one contributor among many

Partnerships forged by Industrial Alliance office (IAO) and

Each partner must benefit while sacrificing something

Funding agency

Each partner trades sacrifices for benefitsB

en

efit

Sacrifices

Sa

crif

ices

Basic Research Applied ResearchScale

Regulation Manufacturing Distribution

Research funding

Public service

Foregoes royalties on sales in low-income countries

Early stage funding from philanthropy

Profits from licensed technology in biofuels, fragrances, flavors, etc.

No Profit from anti-malarial drug

Low cost to Developing World

No profit from sales of anti-malarial drug

Regulatory fast track for drug development

Instead of a “relay race” a single donor makes one grant to fund basic research, translational research, clinical & regulatory activities

No gaps (time, expertise, additional transactions) between stages

Example #2

Applying bioscience to the global energy challenge

Mission: transportation fuel from cellulose

Bench to fuel tank

Ten Years

$500 Million, from BP

Two Research Universities (UC Berkeley, Univ. of Illinois, Champagne/Urbana

A National Laboratory (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

A global energy company (BP)

Public-Private Partnership

Timeline October 2006 -- RFP to 5 potential hosts

February 1, 2007-- award made to Berkeley, Illinois, and LBNL

Spring – Fall 2007-- contract negotiations

November 14, 2007-- contract formally signed, operations begin

Biomass Depoloymerization

Berkeley-BP Partnership Agreement: Unusual Features

Industry scientist (BP) work in labs on University campus

Co-located with University researchers

An Open Component and a Proprietary Component

Open Component: academic research in fundamental biosciences; all results area publishable

Proprietary Component: private, confidential research; results are sole property of BP.

Open and Proprietary components located in adjacent building space

Open component– all collaborators can participate, including BP employees (scientists, consultants)

Proprietary component– space leased from University; controlled cardkey access to BP employees only.

Berkeley-BP Partnership Agreement: Unusual Features

“Yours” - inventions made solely by BP personnel in leased space

“Mine” - inventions made solely by UCB, UIUC or LBNL personnel in their own space

“Ours” - inventions made by at least one inventor for BP and at least one member of UCB, UIUC or LBNL

Operating principle with respect to Intellectual Property– “yours-mine-ours”

Miscanthus Growth over a Single Growing Season Illinois

Licensing provisionsLicensing provisions

For inventions owned by UCB, UIUC and/or LBNL, or jointly with BP

EXCLUSIVE

•BP has first right to negotiate exclusive license to sole or joint inventions.

• pre-negotiated capped fees ($100K per year + patent costs)

• “Bonanza clause” in case of extraordinary commercial success

•BP will diligently pursue commercialization

NON-EXCLUSIVE

BP has access to non-exclusive, royalty free (NERF) license in BP’s area of interest (fuels), providing:

BP will diligently pursue commercialization of licensed technology

BP will underwrite the patent costs

BP Receives a Royalty Free Nonexclusive license to BIP

•If inventors received funding from BP through EBI

•If available when foreground IP is licensed

•solely to the extent necessary

•solely to put into practice licensed, project IP

If an inventor has NOT received BP funding

• License requires inventors consent• • Up to $20K per year for one patent

• Up to $50K per year for a bundle (if bundle necessary to practice one invention)

Background IP

13

Governance Board

UCB/UIUC/LBNL - 4 representativesBP - 4 representatives

Executive Committee

EBI governance and oversight

Strategic ScienceAdvisors

Proprietary Research Programs

OpenResearch Programs

EBI (UIUC)Deputy Director

EBI (UCB) Director

EBI (BP) Assoc. Director

6 ProgramLeaders

AdvisoryBoard

Research Program

Six broad subject matter areas defined in Agreement: e.g., feedstocks, biomass deconstruction/depolymerization, biofuels production, Environmental, social and economic dimensions.

Annual Open Call for proposals (Open Component)

peer reviewed

Executive Committee makes funding decisions

Governance Board accepts or declines the full slate of proposals . . . cannot cherry pick.

Program Scale

129 PIs; 126 post-docs, 133 graduate students

60 Inventions disclosures and 20 patents to date

60 research projects and programs supported to date

382 journal publications and 400 presentations or posters

Example #3

Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore

(BEARS)

A Company Limited by Guarantee in Singapore Owned and Managed by the University of California

November 17, 2011

BEARS: A Center for Climate and Energy Research

Funding

Grant of $95M from Singapore government’s National Research Foundation

$75M for research in Singapore

$20M for research in Berkeley

Research Programs

Building Efficiency and Sustainability in the Tropics

Photovoltaics and photoelectrochemical cells

Location

Downtown Singapore

In NRF’s new Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE)

Rent Free

Research Participants

Investigators from UCB, LBNL, NUS, and NTU

Unusual Features

BEARS is a limited Liability Corporation (LLC) Located in Singapore Owned and Managed by Berkeley Receives and Distributes the $95M in NRF funds

Singapore residency requirement for Berkeley researchers

Director, tenured Berkeley faculty member, resident in Singapore

At least 6 Berkeley faculty PIs must spend one year in aggregate (over 5 years) in Singapore

one stay of at least 6 months, shorter stays of at least 4 weeks.

Intellectual Property

Ownership principle: yours, mine, joint

All BEARS sponsored IP, whomever the owner, managed by Singapore Technology Licencing Office (TLO)

Governance

Governing Board 8 Members

4 NRF/4UCB

Research Programs (Singapore and Berkeley)

BuildingsProgram Lead: UCB

PhotovoltaicsProgram Lead: UCB

UCB College of Engineering

(Sponsor of BEARS)

Director/CEO

Berkeley Faculty Member

Based in Singapore

Executive Director/COO

Based in Singapore

HQ Staff

Based in Singapore

Governing Board (by 2/3rd majority):

Appoints Director tin collaboration with UCB COE

Provides oversight for BEARS operations

Approves disbursement of grant funds

Sets priorities and direction for BEARS