Multidisciplinary research activities covering important aspects of polymer engineering, such as materials processing, sensing and process control, rheology and material characterization, process modeling and simulation, as well as the development of innovative processes and materials will be conducted with direct input from the consortium members. The industrial consortium members will benefit from leveraging its membership funding, receiving objective, first-hand research results and training for application and implementation, harnessing the collective wisdom of UW and industrial participants, as well as accessing a group of career-ready students with relevant experiences.

CAPCE Member Rights
Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Polymer and Composite Engineering (CAPCE) has an Industrial Advisory Board (BOARD) as prescribed by guidelines of the National Science Foundation. The BOARD shall be comprised of one representative from each full member and each thrust area member of CAPCE. A full member pays a $35,000 or more annual membership fee for the right to participate in the selection of research projects undertaken by CAPCE staff in both a primary and secondary thrust area. A thrust area member pays a $25,000 annual membership fee for the right to participate in the selection of research projects in a single thrust area. Each full and thrust area member has one vote in the BOARD. The Board makes recommendations on (a) the research projects to be carried out by CAPCE, (b) the apportionment of resources to these research projects, and (c) changes of CAPCE's membership policy. Two Board meetings shall be held each year, one in the fall and one in the spring. A Technical Review meeting shall be held in conjunction with the Board meeting to report on CAPCE research and to present and discuss future CAPCE research directions. The fall meeting shall emphasize selection of new and/or continuation projects. The spring meeting shall emphasize CAPCE reporting and deliverables, Board feedback, and selection of any new projects that have arisen since the fall meeting.

The identification and selection of CAPCE research projects shall follow the following protocol. Prior to the fall meeting, the respective CAPCE thrust area manager shall contact Members to discuss and ascertain relevant areas of Member future research interests. The CAPCE shall then group the research interests of all Members into a set of pooled, proposed CAPCE research projects under the corresponding thrust areas. The proposed projects shall be presented each year at the fall technical review/ Board meeting, then discussed, modified, and approved by Board representatives. Each project proposal shall include statements addressing industrial concerns such as: problem definition and industrial relevance; prior accomplishments, research plan for the coming year, goals/deliverables for the coming year, milestones for the coming year, faculty and number of students involved, and facilities to be used. Each Board member shall designate project(s) of interest by assigning the amount of his or her own annual membership fee to one or more projects within Member's own thrust area. A project must receive at least $25,000 in combined Member funding allocations in order to be selected for the coming year. If combined allocations total less than $25,000, then the affected Members shall reassign their portion to other project(s). The Members funds are then matched by cash and cost-sharing from the University of Wisconsin Foundation and the National Science Foundation. If a Member representative cannot attend the meeting, the Member shall have the right to designate projects of interest in absentia.

At each BOARD meeting a Second Vice-Chair shall be elected by a majority of members in a given thrust area for a term of 18 months. The candidate must be a designated member of the Board. Appointment of the Second Vice-Chair position shall rotate among the thrust areas, with a new Second Vice-Chair being appointed at each meeting. After six months, the second vice-chair position shall commute to First Vice-Chair, and after a final six months, to Chair. In the event that the Chair cannot be present, the first Vice-Chair shall serve as Chair; if the First Vice Chair also cannot be present, then the Second Vice-Chair shall serve as Chair.

The University reserves the right to publish in scientific/engineering journals the results of research by the University's research site of the CAPCE. Members, however, shall have the opportunity to review any paper or presentation containing results of the research program of the thrust area, prior to publication of the paper, and shall have the right to request a delay in publication for a period not to exceed ninty (90) days from the date of submission to Members, for proprietary reasons, provided Members makes a written request and justification for such delay within thirty (30) days rom the date the proposed publication is submitted by certified mail by UNIVERSITY to Members. Student theses or dissertations are not subject to delay in publication.

All patents derived from inventions conceived or first actually reduced to practice in the course of research conducted by the University's research site of CAPCE shall belong to the University. Members that wish to obtain a nonexclusive, royalty-free license for patented inventions resulting from the sponsored projects in the thrust area agree to reimburse the reasonable costs of filing and maintaining such patents as a condition of license. These costs of patent filing and maintenance shall be prorated equally among the licensees of the patent. Members shall have a period of one hundred eighty (180) days from notice by the University of its intention to prosecute a patent on an invention disclosure by the staff of the research site of CAPCE to determine if Members wishes to obtain a license to such inventions. Members may discontinue reimbursement of patent filing and maintenance costs by providing the University with thirty (30) days written notice to that effect. In cases wherein Members opts to discontinue reimbursement of reasonable patent filing and maintenance costs, Member's license rights shall terminate. If only one Member seeks a license, that Member may obtain an exclusive, fee-bearing license, subject to the US government's right to a royalty-free license for government use. All licenses to patented inventions of the University's research site of CAPCE shall be negotiated in good faith and shall be developed in separate licensing agreements through the University. All licenses shall reflect the terms and conditions of this membership agreement. Members shall have the right to sublicense its subsidiaries and affiliates. Copyright registration shall be obtained for software developed by the University's research site of CAPCE. Members shall be entitled to a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to all copyrighted software developed by the University's research site of CAPCE in the thrust area. Members will have the right to enhance and to remarket enhanced or unenhanced software with royalties due to the University to be negotiated, based on worth of the initial software.

Company rights to patented inventions and copyrighted computer software will continue and become non-cancelable, except for nonpayment of patent filing and maintenance fees, after Thrust Area Member has been a paid-up member for three years. Members who terminate their membership in CAPCE and who have not been paid-up members for three years may continue their existing rights to patented inventions and copyrighted software products by the payment of an annual license fee that will be no greater than that offered or charged to other non-members. Members may terminate its membership in CAPCE at any time by providing written notice to the University, but no refund of annual membership fees already paid will be made by the University upon such termination.

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