Faculty can use this form to submit a request for research development support from CoE or OVPR.
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Name | Title | Phone | |
---|---|---|---|
Michael Centola | AVP, Research Integrity | 860.205.3702 | centola@uchc.edu |
The University of Connecticut is committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards in the performance, reporting, reviewing and proposing of research and scholarly activity. To this end, it is the responsibility of all faculty, staff, students, trainees and visiting scientists to refrain from and prevent research misconduct.
Research misconduct means fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.
Research misconduct does not include honest errors or differences of opinion.
It is also the responsibility of the research community to report suspected incidents of research misconduct.
Policy on Alleged Misconduct in Research
All concerns related to human research, animal research, conflict of interest, research misconduct, research financial accounting, research safety or other research compliance matters should be reported by calling Research Integrity & Compliance at 860-679-2230, Office of University Compliance at 860-486-2530, or the specific area.
Concerns can also be reported anonymously through the REPORTLINE by calling a toll-free number at (888) 685-2637 or via the REPORTLINE website. The REPORTLINE is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year operated by a private (non-UConn) company. You may contact the hotline to report a concern without giving your name. You will be able to re-contact the REPORTLINE to track your report to provide further information at a later date or to obtain general updates about the status of your concern.
The University welcomes and encourages good-faith reporting. As such, individuals who submit a report or participate in a compliance investigation in good faith are provided protection from retaliation per the University’s Non-Retaliation Policy.
Additional information on reporting concerns can be found at the Office of University Compliance website..pdf
The following is a list of videos on research misconduct and integrity from the US Office of Research Integrity.
The Lab, Avoiding Research Misconduct – In this interactive movie, you can choose an alter-ego and become a graduate student, post doc, PI or RIO, and make decisions facing you in a case of data falsification. Decisions that can have long-term consequences on your career. The movie addresses topics such as avoiding research misconduct, mentorship, data stewardship, authorship, and more. The movie has versions in English, Spanish and Chinese.
The Research Clinic – In this movie, you can become a PI, a clinical research coordinator, a research assistant, or an institutional review board (IRB) chair, and make decisions that protect research subjects and avoid research misconduct.
The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) supports faculty research, scholarship, and creative endeavors through a wide range of internal funding programs. OVPR internal grants serve as high-leverage, strategic investments in outstanding faculty research projects that are at critical stages of development. Our internal funding mechanisms are designed to competitively identify projects that fit our key funding criteria–projects that meet the highest disciplinary standards for excellence and are at a “tipping point” where specific work can lead to breakthroughs, external funding, and/or significant recognition. Recognizing that those crucial moments occur at various stages of the research process (and require different levels of funding to address, depending on your discipline), OVPR internal funding programs include large and small dollar mechanisms that focus on seed funding, completion/publication funding, and commercialization funding.
If you are a UConn/UConn Health faculty member who has a project that is ready to move to the next level, we invite you to browse our program guidelines to learn more. You are also welcome to contact us (research@uconn.edu) to ask questions and to discuss which mechanisms are best suited to meet your needs.
The OVPR-Research Development Services (OVPR-RDS) team is excited to host (virtual) Teams Internal Funding Office Hours where faculty can share their novel seed grant project ideas and ask questions about the internal funding competitions.
Click to sign up for a time slot
Office hours for all awards are:
Overview of FY 25 – FY 26 Internal Funding Opportunity Timelines (Last updated 8/8/24)
Program |
Applications open |
Applications due (12 noon) |
Target for Notifications |
Scholarship Facilitation Fund – SFF Spring (Storrs/Regional Campuses only) FY25 | 7/1/2024 | 12/1/2024 | 12/31/2024 |
SPARK Commercialization Technology fund – SPARK FY25 | 9/16/2024 | 10/28/2024 (LOI) – 2/24/2025 (Full proposal due by invitation only) | 5/2025 |
Research Excellence Program –REP FY25 | 9/16/2024 | 12/16/2024 | 5/2025 |
Scholarship and Collaboration in Humanities and Arts Research – SCHARP FY25 | 9/16/2024 | 12/16/2024 | 5/2025 |
Scholarship Facilitation Fund – SFF Fall (Storrs/Regional Campuses only) FY26 | 1/6/2025 |
6/1/2025 | 6/30/2025 |
UConn Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI FY25) Research Initiative | 1/6/2025 | 3/3/2025 | 6/2025 |
Convergence Awards for Research in Interdisciplinary Centers – CARIC FY26 | TBD | TBD | TBD |
Clinical Research and Innovation Seed Program – CRISP FY26 | TBD | TBD | TBD |
Table Key:
Complete / not yet open |
Open for Applications | In Review |
Overview of Standard/Popular Licenses
Choosing an Appropriate License
License Differentiator – Interactive License Selection Tool
Tabular Comparison of License Terms
Software Licenses in Plain English
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A startup is a new business entity formed to commercialize one or more related intellectual properties. Forming a startup business is an alternative to licensing the IP to an established business. There are several factors you should consider to determine if a startup is viable path. Examples include:
TCS Venture Development can help to determine if a startup company is viable, and will advise on other key issues relating to starting a company. The choice to establish a new company for commercializing intellectual property is a joint decision made by TCS and the inventors. If a new business startup is chosen as the preferred commercialization path, TCS can assist you and the other founders in meeting investors, consultants and entrepreneurs and accessing other resources at UConn to advise you in founding the company. It is advisable for inventors to have agreements regarding their roles with the startup reviewed by their own counsel to ensure that all personal ramifications – including taxation and liabilities – are clearly understood.
The general process for the selection of potential technologies for a university startup includes a review of inventions based on criteria such as:
TCS Assistance:
For additional resources to help you start your business, see our Startup Guidebook.
Once a faculty discovery has been patented, that’s not the end of the line! The next step is to find an industry partner who would like to license the technology.
Marketing a technology:
TCS uses many sources and strategies to identify potential licensees and market inventions. Sometimes existing relationships of the inventors, TCS and other researchers are useful in marketing an invention. Market research can also assist in identifying prospective licensees. In addition, we also examine other complimentary technologies and agreements to assist our efforts. Faculty publications and presentations are often excellent marketing tools as well.
Licensees can be identified in many ways. First, the inventors are often aware of the commercial companies who would be interested in the work. Industry-specific marketing efforts, including trade show participation, affiliations and market research carried out by TCS, also seek to identify potential licensees. Additionally, issued patents listed by the USPTO can provide names of companies who currently have patents similar in nature; often these can prove to be potential licensees.
How you can help:
Your active involvement can dramatically improve the chances of matching an invention to an outside company. Studies have shown that 70% of licensees were known to the inventors. Thus research and consulting relationships are often a valuable source for licensees. Your research and consulting relationships are often helpful in both identifying potential licensees and technology champions within companies. Once interested companies are identified, the inventor is the best person to describe the details of the invention and its technical advantages. The most successful technology transfer results are obtained when the inventor and TCS Licensing Director work together as a team to market and promote use of the technology.
Working with industry:
Marketing technology to a potential licensee will usually require that a Confidentiality Agreement be established. The OVPR can negotiate these agreements for you and has the legal authority from the University to do so. Confidentiality Agreements, named Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) or Confidential Disclosure Agreements (CDAs), are agreements between UConn and an outside entity (company, person). These are used to facilitate discussions of information that the parties wish to keep out of the public view. For companies, sharing of their business needs can lead to developing solutions with UConn personnel; however, they may not want such needs to be known to their competitors. For UConn, maintaining confidentiality can preserve patent rights to inventions. Many university offices and the programs of OVPR can provide NDAs/CDAs and can ensure proper agreements are put in place.
Once their evaluation is completed, the potential partner may want to discuss the terms of a license. TCS will negotiate the terms of the license with input from the inventor regarding valuation, and other obligations, that occur in such legally binding agreements. Other terms that are included in a license include exclusivity versus non-exclusivity, world-wide rights versus rights in only some territories, all fields of use versus restricted fields of use, and many other considerations. On occasion, we will sign an option agreement, which gives a company the right to evaluate the technology for a limited time prior to making a decision about licensing (usually 6 months – 1 year). The TCS is experienced in negotiating contracts and is the designated legal authority from the University to do so. If a potential partner asks what kinds of terms the University would want in a license, please refer them to TCS.
Agreement Management:
TCS tracks the progress of the licensee towards milestones and goals established in the signed agreement. Licenses usually state that technology progress reports must be submitted regularly until a product hits the market. Some companies will fund research and development of the technology at UConn in the inventor’s lab. Others may offer a consulting position to the inventor as they develop a product at the licensee’s facilities. TCS usually continues to manage the patents, if there are any, and will sometimes need to handle patent interferences, patent infringement or deal with arbitration or litigation surrounding a technology or a license. Once a product is offered for sale, then TCS requires quarterly reports and royalty payments from the licensee, although specific terms vary from license to license. Payouts are made according to the royalty sharing policy after UConn has recouped its out-of-pocket expenses, primarily the cost of obtaining patent protection.
License Back Policy:
If TCS decides not to pursue a patent on a technology, the inventors have the option to license back the technology. The license back is a legal agreement that enables the Inventor(s) to patent and commercialize technology developed at the University.
Royalty Sharing Policy:
Inventor contribution percentages refer to the share of net royalty income that is split amongst the inventors; the standard disposition is equal sharing. However, it is up to the inventors to propose and agree on a different formula and communicate that agreement to TCS. This is accomplished by filling out the back of the Invention Disclosure Form. Invention-related income is allocated based on the university’s Royalty Sharing Policy.
If you have any questions please contact us!
Gregory Gallo, Director, Technology Transfer
Donna Cyr, Director of Licensing, Physical Sciences & Engineering
Lindsay Sanford, Director of Licensing, Engineering
Amit Kumar, Director of Licensing, Business Development
or call us at 860.679.3992
The following URL, which requires NetID authentication, provides a near real-time, self-service method for adding current University of Connecticut undergraduate students to the Storrs and Health Center InfoEd systems with baseline (default) security.
https://apps.research.uconn.edu/ied/
Once logged in, simply search for the individual student by any of the following:
When the correct individual is listed in the grid, check the box on the left hand side and hit one of the two blue “Add selected users to InfoEd” buttons located above and below the search results grid. The student will have an active (valid) account in both InfoEd systems within 20 minutes between the hours of 7AM-10:45PM, seven days per week.
Note: Only students in the current search results set can be added. To add more students, simply repeat the search, select, and add process, as necessary.
If you experience any difficulties with this website, please contact the eRA Help Desk at 860.486.7944 between the hours of 8AM-4:30PM M-F, or email era-support@uconn.edu and someone will get back to you.
From time to time, the OVPR conducts surveys of faculty to gather feedback on OVPR research support services and other topics related to research. We are very grateful to the faculty who take the time to respond to these surveys, and we commit to using the feedback they provide to shape our efforts to continually improve the experience and success of faculty and staff engaged in research and research-related work.
This NetID-protected repository allows faculty and staff the opportunity to view reports, slide decks, and other documents that present the results/takeaways of these wide-scale surveys.
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This page is secured by UConn Net-ID login.
Working alongside the Research Development Services team, Hanover Research is a key OVPR partner, providing additional capacity for proposal review, consulting, and project management support for investigators at UConn/UConn Health.
Hanover’s team of grant consultants provide a unique and valuable perspective on the grantseeking process. They are usually not content experts in your area of specialty (that’s what you as the faculty member bring to the table). Instead, they are experts in a variety of federal funders and funding mechanisms, and provide feedback on proposal alignment and competitiveness as well as assistance with general grantsmanship skills.
Upon request and pending availability, the OVPR is pleased to allow faculty grantseekers access to Hanover’s core services, including:
Please submit a service request form to discuss the availability of these services. Please inquire well in advance of submission deadlines to ensure that adequate time remains to schedule your project.
Researchers in all disciplines face a dilemma: grant funding is increasingly necessary for fueling research advances while grants keep getting harder to win. The competitiveness of the grantseeking landscape means that funders can be more selective about funding the projects that most closely align with their goals and mission. It also means that most funders can have a lower tolerance for proposals that distract from the research/scholarship proposed by not following grantwriting best practices.
The good news? There are skills and techniques that faculty can learn that will make their work more attractive to funders.
The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) is pleased to provide a number of training opportunities, resources, and services to help our faculty build these skills and to assist them in producing grant applications that are as compelling as the research activities they propose.
Our Training Calendar lists upcoming workshops and webinars addressing grantwriting-related topics. Most require registration and some require approval from your school/college, so please read the description of each event carefully. You can contact research@uconn.edu or call 860.486.6378 with any questions about listed events or to request that a University-sponsored grantwriting training be added to the calendar.
Hanover Research provides the OVPR consultation services aimed at improving grantseeking competitiveness. Upon request (and subject to availability), the OVPR can make Hanover’s services available to grant teams or individual faculty members. We especially invite faculty who are working on grant resubmissions or on preparing large (over $3 million) or complex grant proposals to contact us well in advance of submission deadlines.
Our Resource Library is a NetID-protected repository, accessible to UConn Faculty, Staff, and Students, that contains handouts, slide decks, even videos from past OVPR-sponsored grantwriting training events and webinars. Our goal is to continually add to and update these offerings in order to build a rich collection of resources that address all aspects of the grantseeking process.