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IPrime 2008 Annual Meeting - REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

What Is IPrime?

Welcome to IPRIME, the Industrial Partnership for Research in Interfacial and Materials Engineering at the University of Minnesota. IPRIME focuses on creating opportunities for professionals in industry to collaborate with students and researchers at the University. This exchange provides a productive environment for addressing key areas in interfacial and materials science.

IPRIME continues to build on a history of over 20 years experience connecting industry researchers with the resources available at the University of Minnesota.

Click here for the IPRIME Slideshow (pps)

Click here for the Research Highlights (pdf).


IPRIME Membership

Companies may join the Partnership at one of three membership levels:
  • Sponsor
  • Affiliate
  • Small Company Affiliate
Company Partners gain valuable member benefits including:
  • Influence on research directions
  • Identification of potential future employees through early contact with students
  • Reduced rates at selected supporting facilities
The Industrial Fellows Program offers a key avenue of collaboration with the University. While in residence at the University, a designated employee from a member company works closely with IPRIMEresearchers on a pre-defined research project of mutual interest.

Companies who join the Partnership may also attend the IPRIME Annual Meetings held each spring which include program reviews, workshops and Advisory Committee meetings; attend specialized workshops and short courses; and have access to publications and pre-publications.

Programs and Facilities

IPRIME works with seven research programs: Several of these programs also receive support from the National Science Foundation via the University's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC).

Research is supported by these major facilities: The Partnership draws faculty from the following Institute of Technology departments:

Growing linkage between academic research and patents (NSF study)

An increase in the number of citations on U.S. patents to scientific and technical articles is an indication of a "growing closeness of some research areas to practical applications" and the U.S. Patent office's "increased willingness to award upstream patents, more often associated with pre-development work or building blocks resulting from research" according to an NSF study.

This suggests an increase in the importance of university research to industrial applications. The attached chart shows the change in number of citations on U.S. patents to scientific and technical articles (1987-1998). 25% of U.S. patents cited science articles in 1996 compared to 11% in 1985. In 1998 academic articles comprised 54% of all research articles cited in U.S. patents. In addition, the study noted a "shortening interval between publication and citation and a large proportion of citations to publicly funded science" i.e. academic, nonprofit, and government authors.

University research is becoming more important to innovation in the U.S. and research is moving faster from the universities to industrial applications.