Membership

	Membership Benefits
	Center Operation
	Types of Projects
	Membership Levels & Fees

• Steering Research Directions:  Establish research directions and select Center-designated projects through participation in the Center’s Industrial Advisory Council (IAC).

• Complimentary Industrial Clinics and Start-Up Visits: Receive a one-day clinic and on-site visit to thoroughly explore your needs with respect to Center opportunities.

• Leveraging Effect: Leverage your internal R&D resources via the Center membership sponsored individual projects, i.e., Company-Designated Projects.

• Synergy: Pool resources with multiple members to address long-range (pre-competitive) problems via Center-Designated Projects.

• Rapid Deployment: Evaluation and consultancy in new technology development and deployment.

• Training: Assistance in training and professional development of employees via center sponsored short courses and workshops.

• Low Cost Access to Resources: Access to the Center laboratories and UTSA’s intellectual resources (faculty, staff and students)  at a very economical way.

• Intellectual Property: Right to use the Center reports, data, and information internally for evaluation and further development.  Gain early access and nonexclusive rights to use patented technologies and/or licensed software resulting from Center-Designated Projects.

• Networking: Exchange of learning experience and sharing of best practices among members via biannual meetings, Center workshops, seminars, and special presentations.

• Student Employment and Internship: Access to a pool of top-caliber students for employment and internship opportunities.

The Center operates by maintaining an affiliation of member organizations. Each member pays an annual membership fee.
 

Membership Funds are then used to:

• Perform company-designated projects for individual members.
• Perform center-designated projects for companies sharing common interests
• Technology transfer of results to member companies.
• Develop seminars, training courses, etc. (member companies receive a discounted rate).
• Operate the center (i.e., staff, administration, supplies, and travel).

• Center-Designated Projects: R&D projects tackling manufacturing problems of interest to multiple member companies. These projects, which may last 1 or 2 years, are selected/voted by members at biannual meetings. Costs are covered by pooled annual membership fees.

• Company-Designated Projects: Proprietary R&D projects tackling specific problems determined by individual members and solely conducted for those members.

There are three membership categories: Advantage, Full, and Associate, with annual fees of $55,000, $31,000, and $16,500, respectively.  Each member defines its own projects (Company-Designated Projects) with an effort equivalent to the allocated “Graduate Research Assistant Effort and Faculty Researcher Effort.”  The scope of each company-designated project is determined jointly by the member representative(s) and the Center investigator(s).

A small portion of the membership fees is used to form a common pool of fund, which is then used to support Center-Designated Projects.  These projects are selected by aggregate points voted by members. The magnitude of each Center-Designated project is limited by the total amount of funds available in the common pool.