Rockefeller Foundation Grant Support

In September 2004, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a $50,000 grant to the University of Iowa (HE 039 to Usha Balakrishnan) to support collaborative efforts between TMGH and the Centre for the Management of Intellectual Property in Health R&D (MIHR), an international nonprofit organization based in Oxford, United Kingdom. 

MIHR was established in the United Kingdom in 2002 on the principle that “improved management of IP by the public sector is one way to achieve the goal of improving availability of health products needed in developing countries by the poor.” MIHR has undertaken technology transfer training programs in South Africa, Egypt, and India. In addition, MIHR serves as a resource for licensing strategies and specific provisions that enhance public sector goals. These are described in greater detail in the “MIHR Handbook of Best Practices for the Management of Intellectual Property in Health Research and Development” (a hard copy of the Handbook is available upon request from MIHR at admin@mihr.org).

Under the grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, MIHR and TMGH have teamed up to design and deliver new training curricula aimed at U.S. and Canadian university technology managers to handle inventions, discoveries and patents in a way that promotes global health equity.

In December 2004, a TMGH Curriculum Planning Workgroup was formed:

  • Nalini Anand, National Institutes of Health, Fogarty International Center
  • Usha Balakrishnan, University of Iowa
  • Gordon Comstock, University of Illinois at Chicago
  • John Fraser, Florida State University
  • Cathy Garner, Manchester: Knowledge Capital
  • Anatole Krattiger, Arizona State University; bioDevelopment LLC; Cornell University
  • Richard Mahoney, Arizona State University; and MIHR
  • Marcel Mongeon, McMaster University
  • Lita Nelsen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Luis Salicrup, National Institutes of Health, Office of Technology Transfer
  • Sandy Shotwell, Alta Biomedical Group
  • Wendy Taylor, BIOVentures for Global Health
  • Julie Tan, Health Canada

A booklet titled “Global Health Partnerships and Academic Technology Transfer” was produced in May 2005 and widely distributed. You can access the electronic version of this booklet here (Adobe Acrobat PDF - 481KB).

A number of activities are planned for 2005-2006.

The information provided on this site is still a work-in-progress and is undertaken mostly by TMGH volunteers. So, it is not meant to be comprehensive by any means. We realize that this informational resource will need to be added to, and updated frequently. We welcome suggestions for additional inclusions and edits.