Florida State University
Best Practices for Faculty-Affiliated Start-ups

Faculty-affiliated start-up companies (“start-up” or “company”) are both opportunities and challenges for Florida State University (FSU). FSU has had a long history of entrepreneurial activity by faculty, staff, students and alumni and the University is, in general, supportive of its entrepreneurs. On the other hand, FSU is an institution of public trust, with education and research as its mission, and a requirement to maintain openness in research. Therefore, entrepreneurial activity must be balanced by careful review of the proposed relationships, which may or may not be allowed, and which may require active management to assure openness in research, academic freedom for trainees, and clear understanding about how conflicts of interest are to be managed.

FSU is committed to avoiding either perceived or actual conflict of interest issues with respect to faculty-affiliated start-ups. Both FSU and its faculty have responsibilities to optimize technology transfer and mitigate conflicts of interest when licensing FSU intellectual property to a faculty-affiliated start-up is considered.