Mapúa University has partnered with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to develop its Technology Licensing Office (TLO) through a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed last December 2018. It is the second office to be created in the University geared towards directing Mapúa research to value, following Mapúa’s Innovation and Technology Support Office (ITSO) established in 2011.

“The Technology Licensing Office will make Mapúa’s research and development more responsive not just to the internal needs of the University but also to the needs of society in combating diseases, disasters, and energy issues,” said Dr. Jonathan Salvacion, dean of Mapúa’s School of Graduate Studies.

The TLO will scan for Intellectual Properties (IPs) in the University, covering inventions and works of literature and arts of its faculty and students. The office will check the IPs’ commercialization potentials and will create road maps on how the approved IPs can be brought to the market for commercialization.

One project to be supported by TLO is the University’s Universal Structural Health Evaluation and Recording System (USHER), a building structure health monitoring system composed of an accelerograph or sensor and web portal, which was developed by Mapúa scientists and engineers headed by Dr. Francis Aldrine Uy, dean of Mapúa’s School of Civil, Environmental, and Geological Engineering.

Mapúa University has hired its technology transfer officer and has undergone a pre-implementation meeting for the TLO with DOST last January 25, 2019.

The development of Mapúa’s TLO is under DOST’s Technology Transfer Program, which provides funding and assistance to local research and development projects in the country for commercialization. The partnership with DOST for the office’s development runs from January 2019 to January of next year. The office will remain part of the Mapúa organization after its one-year partnership with DOST.

Following the project is the development of the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) in Mapúa. The TLO will help small companies located in the incubator get on track and put value on their innovations.

“The overall plan is to establish three offices – the Innovation and Technology Support Office, Technology Licensing Office, and the Technology Business Incubator. The establishment of these three offices will make Mapúa research more relevant to the country it serves. These will bring solutions to problems that are socially important and will make knowledge available for dissemination to people,” added Dr. Salvacion.

The Mapúa TLO will be under the University’s Directed Research for Innovation and Value Enhancement (DRIVE), the office created to develop the research capability of the Mapúa system in chemical and environmental engineering, materials science, chemistry, electronics, robotics, and information technology.