UW ups Technology Transfer Office staffing despite institutional funding anxieties

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Amidst internal and nationwide angst regarding how higher education institutions will come across federal funding for particular kinds of research, the University of Wyoming has taken it upon itself to add new staff to its Technology Transfer Office, a body that finds ways to cleverly transfer UW research to real-world applications.

In a email shared to all UW faculty and staff, UW Vice President Parag Chitnis announced the hiring of Dr. Stephanie Sellers, who comes from Indiana University’s Innovation and Commercialization Office.

“At IU she managed a life sciences portfolio, supported the commercialization of faculty innovations, and played a leading role in the Office’s internal agreement review process,” Chitnis said in the staff memo.

The university will also add Dr. Owen Funk to the office as a licensing manager.

“Owen will be working on developing relations between inventors and industry partners while negotiating commercialization agreements among other important facets of IP management and transfer,” Chitnis said.

The goal of TTO is to find ways to take technological or scientific advancements made in-house at the University of Wyoming and find ways to implement them in a beneficial manner to the state. With Funk’s role, the officer will also better help researchers properly license the rights to their innovation.

The caveat to this is that research nationally may begin to grind to a halt as federal organizations like the National Science Foundation cease giving out grants. The school has already made researchers on campus very aware of how funding freezes may affect them and have already created a webpage specifically designed to show researchers how they should navigate around them.

Already, any research that involves diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility has been requested by the university to stop. The specific wording the university uses is “Stop all DEIA-related activities on your project immediately.”

What research faculty at the University of Wyoming will be able to complete will at least have hopes of making a future difference with the assistance of TTO.

“While there may be some stressful funding scenarios on the horizon, UW continues to be committed to supporting, recognizing and rewarding our faculty, staff and students in pursuit of research, scholarship, and creative endeavors,” Chitnis concluded with.