1. DuPont MIT Alliance
Bruce Tidor
MIT

2. 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

3. Research
DuPont
MIT
Problems
Solutions
Patent Licenses
Students/Employees
Funding

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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