Puerto Rico and the Caribbean
www.theweeklyjournal.com
>AP
Wednesday, August 7-13, 2019 - // no. 015
P.R. SUPREME COURT TO RULE ON PIERLUISI AS GOVERNOR P6
RISE IN CONSUMPTION OF LOCAL DAIRY PRODUCTS P14
PUERTO RICO MAKING HEADWAY IN THE HIGHLY COMPETITIVE
‘BUSINESS OF SCIENCE’ Technology Transfer Office has active portfolio of 34 technologies
T Rosario Fajardo
GLAMPING: LUXURY CAMPING P28
rfajardo@wjournal.com
@RosarioWJournal
he Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust is making headway into catching up with research and development (R&D) benchmarks in the U.S., but there is still a way to go. “We are at 50 percent of where we want to be,” said David L. Gulley, the director of the Trust’s Technology Transfer Office, which handles the so-called business of science—turning scientific discoveries into commercial success, in other words, financial gain. The goal was for Puerto Rico to be a tech hub by 2020, but he acknowledged to THE WEEKLY JOURNAL that this objective won’t be met. The impact of Hurricane Maria in scientists’ ongoing work has been a clear setback “After Maria, labs closed, faculty and students left, many labs lost months of work
due to power issues. Even though they had generators, they needed specific electricity output, so many scientists lost their research, some cell lines were lost,” Gulley said. “It takes time to restart. Researchers lost at least a semester of work.” Still, the progress made nearly two years after Maria hit the island is evident. As of fiscal year (FY) 2019, the Technology Transfer Office has been working on 44 scientific discoveries that are in various stages of disclosure and evaluation. As part of the process to obtain a valid patent for these discoveries, a full disclosure must first be made to the scientific community and then followed through with publication. The U.S., like most countries, recognizes the “first to file” principle to be entitled to a patent. Among the new technologies being developed is a new compound with anti-malarial GO TO PAGE 4
>Carlos Rivera Giusti
PRIVATE SECTOR REPORTS JOB INCREASE P8