NIH International Technology Transfer Mentoring Program

Medical research to combat disease is now a global effort and one that now requires an international technology transfer effort to see that new discoveries from research are effectively developed and commercialized to reach patients. While the United States in general, and the National Institutes of health
(NIH) in particular, have long led the way in effective biomedical technology transfer, such is not the case with new or younger transfer programs at research institutions outside the US, especially those in emerging and middle-income countries. In the International Technology Transfer Mentoring Program, mentoring
opportunities of up to 90 days are provided to scientists, managers and other qualified technology transfer personnel with a background in the fields of law, business, or life sciences by a trans-NIH staff lead by the Office of the Director’s Office of Technology Transfer. This program has enabled international visitors to
combine their legal, business, or life science background with training and experience in the technology transfer field to become more efficient and effective technology transfer officers at their own home research institutions.

International research institutions participating in the mentoring program are responsible for the travel & living expenses of their staff; there is no NIH funding dedicated to support this program or its participants. While the program is open to all technology transfer officers from research institutions or agencies outside the US, preference is given to those from emerging and middle income countries. The international research institutions participating in the technology transfer mentoring program in FY15 were:

• Ethiopian Public Health Institute (Ethiopia)
• Saudi Food & Drug Authority (Saudi Arabia)
• University Scoiola Superiore Sant’Ann (Italy)
• Ege University (Turkey)
• University of Edinburgh (Scotland)
• University of the West Indies (Jamaica)
• Istanbul Sehir University (Turkey)
• King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (Saudi Arabia)
• King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia)
• Middle Eastern Technical University (Turkey)
• Turin Polytechnic (Italy)
• University of Calabria (Italy)

Prior year participants in the program have included research institutions from Chile, Mexico, Qatar, China, India, France, UK, Croatia, Czech Republic, Argentina and Kenya.

During their stay the international visitors interacted with NIH staff in the areas of patenting, licensing, marketing, international technology transfer and technology transfer policy. They also had meetings and discussions with other federal agencies, such as the Food & Drug Administration and the Patent & Trademark
Office and attended FLC events where possible. Each international visitor concluded their stay with a seminar presentation to the NIH community about biomedical development, research collaboration and technology transfer in their region.

Awardees
 

NIH - National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

• Brian Bailey

NIH - National Cancer Institute

• Vio Conley
• Michael Currens
• Charles Salahuddin
• Luis Salicrup

NIH - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

• Haiqing Li
• Mukul Ranjan

NIH - National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

• Agnes Rooke

NIH - Office of Technology Transfer

• Steven Ferguson 
• Uri Reichman
• Alex Taylor
• Dr. Betty Tong
• Tracy White