Value of DTC Consortium Membership

Opening the door to university research

Consortium members will be able to develop close working relationships not only with faculty, but also with graduate students and post-doctoral associates who might in the future become members' employees.
Interactions with faculty could stimulate or promote proprietary research projects that consortium members might like to undertake.
The DTC provides consortiums a connection to the business/entrepreneurial organizations at the University such as the Carlson School of Management, and the business operations with the Patents, Technology and Marketing Office.

A role in directing research and the development of digital technology

Consortium members, through the advisory boards, play a key role in setting the technology focused strategic direction(s) that will define the content of the research undertaken by the consortium.
Consortium membership provides a point of entry for companies/institutions with common interests to that digital technology
Membership provides an opportunity and a mechanism to work on a regular basis with other companies/institutions involved with or interested in the particular technology focus of the consortium.
Residency Program allows — at no additional charge — consortium members to have an employee work with faculty and graduate students at the Digital Technology Center on consortium centered research projects.

Enhances “bang” for the buck

Consortium fees are modest (varying among the consortia), fractions of the annual cost of a full technical headcount, and, as a result of a substantially reduced University overhead charges, are essentially fully used to fund consortia research.
Each $1 of funding could be leveraged up to 5 to 10 times that amount through:
–multiple members paying fees to consortium

–seed funding from the DTC. Currently the DTC is providing seed funding for the two current consortiums Digital Technology Center Intelligent Storage Consortium (DISC) and the Digital Design Partnership Consortium (DDPC). This funding is in the range of several hundred thousand dollars.

–federal funding.

–grants from private sources.

Value added and other benefits

Consortium membership brings certain patent ownership and exclusive license rights to all members.
Each consortium has a technology contact person or facilitator with industrial, or non-academic experience dedicated to the consortium to help assure that meaningful technology transfer will occur from the research.
Each consortium will sponsor at least one national level workshop/conference focused on that consortiums technology area. In addition, there will be other smaller workshops, seminars, and other forms of communications.
DTC will coordinate interactions for consortium members with the University of Minnesota Patents, Technology and Marketing (PTM) Office regarding all intellectual property items.
Significant, state of the art laboratory facilities are often — depending upon the technology focus of the consortium — available to consortium participants.
DTC administrative staff works with each consortium and its members to facilitate smooth, efficient procedures to make the membership process customer friendly.