Greetings colleagues!!  Below is a posting from June.  I only
received one response, so I was curious as to whether or not that
meant that people didn't have any experience with BSF or simply
didn't have time to reply.  So, I thought I would ask a different
question...does your institution even submit to the BSF?  If not, is
it because it just hasn't come up or because of the onerous terms?

Any information is greatly appreciated!

Val Kettner
xxxxxx@ndsu.edu

>Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:19:35 -0500
>To: Research Administration Discussion List <xxxxxx@hrinet.org>
>From: Val Kettner <xxxxxx@ndsu.nodak.edu>
>Subject: US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF)
>
>Greetings!  I would be interested in hearing from anyone who
>currently has funding with the US-Israel Binational Science
>Foundation.  In looking at the standard BSF contract and the BSF
>administrative requirements, I'm wondering how other institutions
>worked around the IP provisions.
>
>The administrative highlights of the BSF guidelines on IP indicate
>that the IP rights in the DRAFT contract have been approved by both
>governments and are not open to exception.  If a Grantee discloses
>an invention and elects to file a patent, the BSF is entitled to 5%
>of the royalties (after payment of patent and maintenance
>costs).  Do you permit royalty sharing on a regular basis, and does
>it come off the top or out of a particular piece of the standard
>institutional split?  (At NDSU, our standard is 30% to the
>inventors, 40% to the generating Department, 30% to the Research Foundation).
>
>If a Grantee does not elect to file, or does not file in a timely
>manner, the BSF is entitled to all rights, and if the Grantee only
>files in certain countries, the BSF is entitled to all rights in the
>remaining countries.  Do you permit such assignment of rights?  At
>NDSU, our policy requires us to return to inventors any inventions
>that the Research Foundation decides not to protect, subject to
>retention by the Research Foundation of up to 30% of the
>revenues.  In this instance, I suppose the inventor could agree to
>assign rights to BSF.
>
>The BSF can also require the Grantee or an exclusive licensee to
>grant a non-exclusive or exclusive license to a responsible
>applicant within the US or Israel on reasonable terms, if the
>Grantee or exclusive licensee "has not taken or is not expected to
>take effective steps to achieve practical application of the
>invention in the US or Israel."
>
>Other administrative highlights:
>- limit recovery of F&A to 15%
>- do not permit recovery of any PI salary but do require the % of
>effort to be included
>- limit the amount that can be requested to $230,000 (including F&A)
>- indicate that grants rarely exceed $50,000/year.
>
>I have heard that it is very difficult to even get funding from the
>BSF.  I'm curious how many out there do have such funding.
>
>Thanks for any insight!!
>
>Val Kettner
>Associate Vice President
>Sponsored Programs Administration
>North Dakota State University
>xxxxxx@ndsu.edu

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