Frequently Asked Questions

From our open intellectual property practices to our robust history of working with companies, Penn State is ideally suited to assist with your research and development needs.  Instead of spending capital on new equipment, consider accessing our state of the art facilities available to you through research collaborations with our researchers or in any one of a number of user facilities on campus.

The Office of Industrial Partnerships is your connection to Penn State expertise. Contact OIP to initiate a discussion regarding your specific needs and interests.

The free services of the Office of Industrial Partnerships help guide you through the entire process. From identification of the best researcher(s) for your needs, through the streamlining of the contracting process, we speed up the timeline of working with the university.

A additional benefit of working with a large university like Penn State is that we have many areas of world class research. Our core research areas include:

• advanced manufacturing
• advanced materials
• agricultural sciences
• alternative and renewable energy
• defense related research
• environmental science and technology
• information science and technology
• life sciences

Responding to the complex demands of today's new products and services that are under development, teams of cross-disciplinary researchers often form to tackle complex challenges. These types of efforts are supported by specific institutes bridging the academic colleges. For more information regarding some of our key interdisciplinary initiatives, go to:

• Materials Research Institute
• The Huck Institutes of the Life Science
• Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment
• Institute for CyberScience
• Social Science Research Institute
• Institute for the Arts & Humanities

The Office of Industrial Partnerships is equipped to guide you through establishing and nurturing a sound relationship with Penn State researchers. We can identify appropriate researchers based on your specific needs, arrange introductory meetings or conference calls, and interface with other administrative offices. When appropriate, a Non-Disclosure Agreement can be employed to handle the disclosure and receipt of confidential/proprietary information between Company representatives and University researchers. We can also help you select, very early in the process, the appropriate contract mechanism to achieve your goals within the necessary time-frame.

A partial list of agreement templates is available for review. Each agreement is specific for the work effort being performed and deliverables being requested, whether it is a single project or long-term alliance in which multiple project orders can be issued under an umbrella master-type arrangement. In addition, a Non-Disclosure Agreement template is also available for review to handle the protection of confidential information.

Most of the standard agreements can be tailored to fit specific needs. Our templates should be viewed as a starting point for negotiations. We strive to achieve mutually beneficial arrangements in a timely manner.

Yes. The Penn State Office of Industrial Partnerships frequently assists companies looking to partner with the University to jointly develop proposals to target government funding opportunities. We will help you identify potential research expertise, and arrange discussions with appropriate researchers.