Research and Innovation

Corporate Engagement

At the Penn Engineering Office of Corporate Engagement, our mission is to cultivate and sustain strategic partnerships with corporate collaborators that advance innovation, research and education. We work to create mutually beneficial relationships between industry and the Penn Engineering community while providing responsive high-quality support to faculty and staff. Through these partnerships, we align the interests of Penn Engineering and our corporate partners to accelerate discovery, translate research into impact and prepare the next generation of engineering leaders.

Licensing and Talent Arrangements by Commitment Level

Penn Engineering will offer tailored licensing models for technologies in domains outside of life sciences and health care based on cumulative annual funding provided by an industry partner to support a project in the School. These licensing models are designed to facilitate flexible engagement while encouraging innovation and collaboration between Penn Engineering and the commercial sector. As part of this program, industry partners will also have unique opportunities to engage with Penn Engineering students and faculty. The funding thresholds below apply to sponsored research funding (excluding gifts) and are considered on a project-by-project basis. These structured partnerships ensure mutually beneficial outcomes and streamlined access to emerging technologies, recruitment of students and faculty collaboration.

Explore Partnership Opportunities

Kite Tier

(Annual funding received up to $100K)

Licensing
  • Option to an exclusive commercial license to Penn’s rights in such IP (on future terms to be negotiated in good faith by the parties).
  • Non-exclusive, royalty-free license to Penn’s rights in IP resulting from the performance of research funded through sponsored research for internal research purposes only. Option to an exclusive commercial license to Penn’s rights in such IP (on future terms to be negotiated in good faith by the parties).
Student Recruitment

Standard access to student resumes and applications is available through conventional Penn Engineering channels.

Spark Tier

(Annual funding received from $101K-$500K)

Licensing
  • Non-exclusive, royalty-free license to Penn’s rights in IP resulting from the performance of the sponsored research for commercial purposes.
  • Option to an exclusive commercial license to Penn’s rights in such IP (subject to payment of a fixed fee or royalty, not to exceed a low single-digit percentage of net sales), which can be exercised at any time during the term of the funded research and six months thereafter.
Student Engagement and Recruitment
  • Direct access to students actively involved in collaborative projects.
  • Ability to directly engage with students in the lab on educational or mutually beneficial collaborative projects.

Lightning Tier

(Annual funding received at or above $501K)

Licensing
  • Non-exclusive, royalty-free license to Penn’s rights in IP resulting from the performance of the sponsored research for commercial purposes.
  • An option to an exclusive and sublicensable license for commercial purposes to Penn’s rights in such IP (subject to payment of a fixed fee or royalty, not to exceed 1% of net sales and waived for at least a year following first commercial sale of a first product subject to such royalty obligation), which can be exercised at any time during the term of the funded research and six months thereafter.
 the first two years
Student and Faculty Engagement
  • Ability to engage students through extended internships, externships and other specialized student—industry programs.
  • Enhanced opportunities for direct faculty collaboration, consulting and customized research engagements.

Penn Engineering Licensing and Talent Arrangements; Eligibility for Funded Projects

To be eligible for participation in the program, the funded project must meet Penn’s policies and guidelines for industry sponsored research and the following requirements:

  1. Research Areas
    Projects for Penn Engineering exclusive of those in the fields of life sciences and healthcare.
  2. Federal Funding Compliance
    Projects must not involve federal flowthrough funding subject to the Bayh-Dole Act where the grant recipient is prohibited from securing rights in subcontractor intellectual property, consistent with 37 CFR 401.14(g)(1).
  3. Gifts
    Gifts to the institution will not be considered when calculating the funding threshold for a project.
  4. Scope of Covered Intellectual Property
    Eligible projects may generate intellectual property including patentable inventions that are conceived and reduced to practice; and copyrightable works, including software, that are authored; in each case in the performance of the project and during the term of the applicable agreement.
  5. Institutional Ownership and Rights
    All intellectual property developed in the course of the project remains subject to the institution’s ownership policies, including the reservation of rights for the institution and other nonprofit organizations to use such intellectual property for research and educational purposes, and any rights of the federal government, if applicable.
  1. Principal Investigator and Personnel Consent
    The Principal Investigator and relevant project personnel must be agreeable to the institution granting an option or license to the sponsor for project intellectual property and/or the open sourcing of software developed under the project, where applicable.
  2. Third-Party Obligations
    Projects must be free of conflicting third-party obligations that would restrict the institution’s ability to grant intellectual property rights or open source software.
  3. Option and License Conditions
    Any option or license granted to a sponsor is contingent upon:

    1. The sponsor’s agreement to pay all ongoing patent filing, prosecution and maintenance expenses associated with project intellectual property; and
    2. Acceptance of the institution’s reserved rights to continue to use any project intellectual property for nonprofit research and educational use.
  4. Open Sourcing Software
    As an alternative to granting an option or license to the sponsor, the institution may agree to open source software developed under the sponsored research, subject to PI and personnel consent and third-party constraints.
  5. Tax-Exempt Bond Compliance
    Projects conducted in facilities financed with tax-exempt bonds must comply with private business use limitations. Eligibility is subject to confirmation, in consultation with the appropriate tax office, that such thresholds will not be exceeded.
  6. Penn Start-Up Companies
    As partial consideration for any license granted to project intellectual property under the Lightning Tier or Kite Tier, it is expected that Penn will receive a small equity position in any sponsoring startup company formed to commercialize Penn technologies unless equity has already been issued to Penn under a prior license.