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July 30, 1998

WASHINGTON RESEARCH FOUNDATION GIVES $6 MILLION TO UW

SEATTLE-The Washington Research Foundation (WRF) today gave a check for $5,825,000 to the University of Washington, bringing to more than $45 million the total amount of money the WRF has returned to the university over the past 16 years.

In addition, the WRF made a special donation of $250,000 to the School of Business in honor of Seattle attorney William H. Gates II for his years of service to the WRF. Gates, along with Seattle area business leaders Tom Cable and Hunter Simpson, founded the WRF in 1981.

At one troublesome point in the foundation's history, Gates helped draft the legislation, later made law in the 1986 Tax Reform Act, which provides the foundation with a federal tax exemption. He has served as secretary and general counsel to the WRF board, and also as a director. In January of this year, he resigned from the WRF when he joined the University of Washington Board of Regents.

The WRF was established as a licensing agent for research-based technologies developed at the University of Washington and other institutions in the state. It altered its mission two years ago and now uses funds derived from royalty income for seed-venture investments and to support research and scientific scholarship. (more)

The $5.82 million payment, the largest ever made by the independent foundation, represents "how great research, in combination with hard work and technology transfer, can produce economic benefits for the university as well as as private enterprise," said Ron Howell, WRF president.

The payment will be handed over to the university's Office of Technology Transfer, which will allocate it under a distribution formula to researcher/inventors, schools and departments, and the university. The WRF returns 60 cents of every dollar it earns to the university.

The $250,000 Gates donation is a directed gift from WRF's retained surplus that will be used to fund a three-year interdisciplinary program that brings together students studying business, science, law and other disciplines to work on early stage business start-ups. The students will make up "advanced technology commercialization teams" under the guidance of the Program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (PEI) at the School of Business.

"This program is especially appropriate because Bill Gates has long been supportive of commercializing scientific research at the university," Howell said. "This is what we are about."

Gary Hansen, PEI executive director, added: "The university has been trying to stimulate exactly this type of team-building between the business school and the university's various research programs."

The WRF has generated more than $100 million in revenue from its technology licensing deals and reinvested earnings since its formation. In the last two years, it has invested or committed more than $2 million in nine early stage start-up business ventures. The WRF annually reviews more than 300 research disclosures from Washington state institutions for potential future development. (more)

In addition to the $45 million the WRF has earned for the university as part of its operations, it has given $3.8 million to support research funds, programs and scholarships.

CONTACT: Ronald Howell, President of WRF, 206-336-5600.