I devoted years to developing the first UV-C LED water disinfection system — a safer, more efficient alternative to mercury-based lamps — no...

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I devoted years to developing the first UV-C LED water disinfection system — a safer, more efficient alternative to mercury-based lamps — now deployed on every continent and even aboard the International Space Station. My hope is that it continues to help close the clean water gap, one community at a time. But this breakthrough never would have left the lab if not for the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 — a little-known bipartisan law that allows federally funded research to be patented, licensed and brought to market. Protecting this policy is essential to ensuring life-changing innovations, like mine, reach those who need them most. During my Ph.D. studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, I began focusing on LED technology — specifically UV-C LEDs. Thanks to the Bayh-Dole Act, UNC Charlotte was able to patent my invention and license it to a local startup, Dot Metrics, which operated out of the university’s technology transfer incubator. In 2015, we launched AquiSense to scale the product further. Today, AquiSense is the first to design and manufacture large-scale UV-C LED disinfection systems currently being used across industries, including pharmaceuticals, healthcare, municipal drinking water, and wastewater. In Las Vegas, our technology is helping to increase the city’s total water capacity by 30% and in a separate project, conserving 75% of water used in the power production process. Globally, other uses include a hybrid solar model for remote communities in the rainforests of Colombia and hydroponic gardens in Antarctica. But this kind of innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Nearly three-fourths of university licenses go to startups and small businesses like mine — and we depend on strong technology transfer policies to thrive. The Bayh-Dole Act is the lynchpin of America’s tech transfer system. It empowers university researchers, small businesses and nonprofits to patent their innovations and license them to private companies with the capacity to scale and distribute them. Between 1996 and 2020, this framework helped create over 18,000 startups and contributed more than $1 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product. It also fuels American manufacturing, boosting local economies and supporting high-quality jobs. At AquiSense, we are proud to headquarter both our innovation and manufacturing here in the United States. Our research and design center in North Carolina drives new discoveries, while our Kentucky facility completes product assembly from start to finish. For startups like ours, this path was made possible by the Bayh-Dole Act, which allowed me to transform my Ph.D. research from the public sector into a thriving private enterprise. . This important innovation pipeline is at risk, and the U.S. must protect it./ Activists are urging federal policymakers to exercise the government’s “march-in” authority under Bayh-Dole — which would entail undoing the exclusive licensing agreements between research institutions and private companies and forcibly relicensing the patents to rival firms. Congress intended march-in rights to be a last-resort remedy, used only in rare circumstances — such as when a licensee refuses to make a good-faith effort to commercialize a patented idea or discovery. In Bayh-Dole’s 45-year history, the federal government has never needed to invoke its march-in rights. But policymakers seem increasingly open to activists’ proposed expansion of march-in rights. The Biden administration issued a draft framework asserting agencies could march in on patents they helped fund if they deem a successfully commercialized product’s price is too high. While the Trump administration hasn’t implemented the draft framework, it hasn’t formally withdrawn it either. The framework is a direct misapplication of the law, as Bayh-Dole does not authorize price as a trigger for march-in. Such a drastic reinterpretation would introduce uncertainty into the tech transfer ecosystem and deter the private investment essential for advancing early-stage innovations into real-world applications. Meanwhile, proposed cuts to federal agencies’ research funding could undermine the next wave of breakthroughs before they even begin. Across the country, countless innovators and small businesses have turned research into real-world impact, advancing U.S. technological leadership thanks to the opportunities made possible by the Bayh-Dole Act. That’s why we must safeguard the policy that helps transform life-altering research into real-world solutions. Jennifer Pagán is the co-founder and chief technology officer at AquiSense, Inc.

SOURCE: https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article311857328.html

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