DuPont MIT Alliance

Bruce TidorMIT

Components

• Research of relevance to industry (chemical, polymers, materials, agriculture)– Close contact between business units and MIT– Patent protection and licensing rights to DuPont;

patents belong to inventors• Education– Support of graduate students at MIT– Educational short-courses at DuPont

• Funding from DuPont

DuPont MIT

Research

Problems

Solutions

Patent Licenses

Students/Employees

Funding

Company Motivation

• Not to replace research at company, but rather to augment it and give it further reach

• Particular interest of CEO to education his executive team to anticipate the future so his company could respond appropriately

University Motivation

• Interesting problems for research• Interesting opportunities for students• Don’t do it because of the funding, but rather

once the other pieces are correct, then industry needs to provide funding

Overall Parameters

• Begun in 2000 and continues today• Total funding to date is $60 MM• Example projects

– Gregory Stephanopoulos: next-generation advances in metabolic engineering

– Mriganka Sur: a novel biopolymer-based nervous system implant that could replace nonfunctional brain tissue following traumatic brain injury

– Linda Griffith: a device for tissue-like culturing of liver cells, designed to provide early assessment of the toxicity of new pharmaceuticals;

– Michael Rubner: a novel material similar to the naturally water repellent surface of the lotus leaf

Balancing Needs of Partners

• Projects selected based on proposed novel research from MIT faculty– MIT evaluates for research excellence– DuPont evaluates for relevance to business

• Project reporting includes close interactions between partners– frequent video conferences– visits and some exchanges of personnel