RISD has experienced a 30-percent increase in corporate sponsorship of research since 2005. For schools like Brown University and the University of Rhode Island (URI), corporate sponsorship ranges between 2 and 4 percent of research funding in the last three years. Both schools are seeking to increase those numbers, hoping to create new funding sources as well as to give students more experience with the outside world.

URI formed the URI Research Foundation this year to facilitate interactions between academia and the corporate world. Brown recently created a new position, director of research initiatives, whose main task would be to look for corporate sponsorships. Also, four years ago, Brown formed an Office for the Vice President of Research with a unit called Brown Technology Partnerships (BTP).

...[BTP] facilitates 12 to 15 licensing agreements with three to four companies per year, said Charles Kingdon, associate vice president for technology partnerships at Brown.

BTP also assists startup companies created by faculty...“Where we’re falling short is in ongoing support...” he said, adding that the startups need physical space in facilities, additional funding streams and mentoring support.

Briant said offices such as the BTP office are “absolutely essential” for research universities looking to capitalize on the intellectual property created by faculty because of the sophisticated knowledge sponsored research and licensing agreements require.