AURP at 35!
AURP at 35! Thirty-five years ago, there was no Internet as we know it. No Facebook. No Twitter. And no Zoom meetings! But in 1986 a group of universities gathered in Arizona to form a non-profit association to advance university outreach, innovation, and corporate partnerships through research parks. Among these founding public universities were Arizona State University, Texas A&M, and Central Florida University, along with Stanford University, RPI, Research Triangle Park and other entities. University tech transfer offices were then in their infancy since the Bayh-Dole Act allowing universities to own intellectual property from federally sponsored research had passed only a few years earlier. Few university incubators existed. Entrepreneurship as an academic discipline or interest among student or faculty groups was just beginning. Venture and angel capital was emerging as a financing tool. AUTM had not been formed. iNBIA did not exist. University research parks had