Alliances

For Faculty

Corporate and Foundation Research Alliances serves faculty across the U-M research enterprise by providing connections, strategy and negotiation support for corporate and foundation sponsored research. We specialize in research opportunities with commercial applications that emphasize intellectual property, licensing and business considerations.

Our Corporate and Foundation Research Alliances team is ready to support you to find the best partnership to advance your research or commercialize your innovation.

What We Do

We partner with faculty to understand their goals, and work diligently to find common ground between their goals and those of the industry or foundation sponsor to negotiate and establish mutually beneficial research partnerships.

Why We Do It

We play a unique role in the campus research ecosystem by providing faculty-focused opportunity evaluation and negotiation support before and after the submission of a Proposal Approval Form (PAF) to the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects. Pre-PAF discussions with companies and foundations relating to intellectual property, licensing and business terms are often important for framing the project budget, statement of work and deliverables in a manner that is most likely to yield successful outcomes for both faculty and our industry and foundation partners.

When to Engage with Us

We are here to assist faculty exploring corporate and foundation sponsored research relationships at any stage in the process, from early ideation, to negotiation of IP, licensing and business terms through agreement execution.

For Foundations

Corporate and Foundation Research Alliances is the University’s destination for philanthropic partners seeking research collaborations with faculty that advance bold ideas and high-impact discovery across disciplines.

Who We Work With

We work with private funders seeking to leverage their support of transformative research to change lives. Many of our partners are new to U-M research and we serve as a navigator through the ecosystem of basic and clinical research labs, working in close collaboration with Michigan’s translational and licensing teams to build powerful strategic partnerships that can advance pioneering discoveries in biomedicine, data science, educational platforms, climate technology and other innovations to the patients and public who can benefit from our work the most. 

What We Do

We work closely with foundations and other funders as well as with U-M faculty leading labs conducting high-risk, high-reward research in order to align interests and priorities and support potential partnerships to pursue shared goals. Our team supports funder engagement through a five-step process — Discover, Cultivate, Ask, Execute and Steward — that ensures alignment at every stage, from first conversations through long-term collaboration, and offers a deep understanding of Michigan’s vast research organization and its capabilities. Working with our colleagues in Innovation Partnerships and in the Office of University Development, we are able to structure partnerships using a range of funding frameworks to meet both the funder’s intentions and institutional needs.

Why We Do It

As the national research funding landscape quickly evolves, new and exciting funding models are emerging as visionary and creative philanthropists seek to use multiple ways of engaging with academic research and bring innovation to translation. Our strategic, relationship-centered approach responds to this rapidly changing context with flexibility,  shared purpose and long-term vision. By aligning faculty research expertise with the priorities of mission-driven funders, we create pathways for scalable impact, new scientific breakthroughs and meaningful public good. As part of Innovation Partnerships, and in collaboration with our colleagues in the Office of Development and in research offices across Michigan, we bring together the capabilities and institutional insight necessary to initiate and sustain these collaborations, enabling U-M research to reach broader audiences through foundation-supported research alliances.