BTI is devoted to extending the impact of technology, goods, services and inventions resulting from research at Brown University. The office acts as a one-stop-shop for Brown faculty and industry partners to evaluate inventions, file patents, commercialize intellectual property and launch startup companies.
With BTI’s support, Brown is nationally ranked as a Top 100 university for new patents issued.
Through industry partnerships, Brown faculty can gain access to cutting-edge technologies, unlock new funding opportunities and provide research staff, student researchers and postdoctoral researchers with valuable experience in industry engagement.
Brown Technology Innovations (BTI) strives to make it simple for Brown faculty to leverage BTI’s expertise and resources. Within the normal course of academic workflow — utilizing abstracts, posters, manuscripts, dissertations, publications, presentations, talks and conference attendances — BTI looks for opportunities to promote and market faculty members’ research capabilities to an audience of investors, entrepreneurs and companies.
Within the University ecosystem, BTI closely collaborates with Brown's Division of Research and the Vice President for Research, the Division of Advancement and leadership and deans of Brown schools, departments, centers and institutes.
BTI works with faculty to protect their intellectual property, disclose their inventions and obtain patents and seek opportunities for licensing and translation. Brown faculty should reach out to BTI in a variety of cases.
It’s critical for faculty to reach out to BTI as soon as the possibility of new intellectual property arises, before publishing any materials reporting the advance — it is much more difficult to protect intellectual property after it’s been published.
BTI encourages external companies and entrepreneurs seeking University research partners to connect with a BTI staff member specializing in their area of interest and browse through BTI’s searchable database of the latest discoveries from Brown faculty and labs.
Each year at Brown, BTI hosts an Innovation@Brown Showcase in conjunction with Rhode Island Startup Week, highlighting emerging technologies and startups from Brown faculty and labs. BTI also travels to represent Brown’s technology and commercialization portfolio at major hubs for industry engagement, such as the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, BIO International Convention and conferences held by professional societies like the Association for University Technology Managers.
The mission of Brown Technology Innovations (BTI) is to put Brown University’s technology first to drive commercial outcomes that benefit the University and society.