The five campuses that make up the University of Massachusetts generated $41.4 million last year from the commercialization of intellectual property. That’s up $13 million from the prior year.

The totals show the school is serious about licensing the patents, inventions and technologies developed on the campuses to support the state’s economic development.

The revenue also provides some relief to a taxpayer-supported university that, like all public education, is struggling to pay the bills.

The University of Rhode Island can’t match that record. But it has been given a new tool to try to catch up. URI should put it to work, fast.

This summer, a state law was approved to allow URI to create a private foundation to commercialize the intellectual property derived from university research.

Peter Alfonso, URI’s vice president for research and economic development, is heading up the creation of the foundation, designed as a nonprofit, self-sustaining enterprise. After a national search, he plans to interview three candidates and hire a technology-transfer director by mid-October. He’s also putting together a board of directors for the foundation that will include four university officials and up to nine business representatives.

“We would like those private-sector members to come from the market sectors where we have research strengths, including biotechnology, pharmacy, engineering and the marine industries,” Alfonso said.

Amgen, Alexion, Raytheon, CVS and other leaders of Rhode Island’s economy seem naturals to place executives on the board.

Alfonso also pointed out that at a time of strained state revenues to support higher education, the foundation can provide money to support research that could lead to the commercialization of new technologies, start-up companies and new technology-based jobs.

“State revenues at the university have been dwindling over the years and little of that funding supports research activities,” he said.

Alfonso said that an independent research foundation will provide the flexibility to compete with other universities for licensing money while shielding the institution from liability. It will also give URI a vehicle to take an equity stake in a company, in lieu of royalty payments.

Previously, URI’s efforts to commercialize intellectual property were directed by the URI Foundation, which also managed the university’s endowment and a small technology-transfer staff based in the URI Research Office. Alfonso estimated that effort brought in $600,000 to $1 million annually during the last 10 years.

“We can increase the magnitude of the revenues that are generated,” he said, but declined to forecast an annual figure.

As the new foundation takes shape, Alfonso, other university officials and state legislators should also move quickly to set up a research park near the campus. New companies could locate there to develop from technologies spun out of the university, and existing companies could do research in collaboration with professors. Legislation to create a park was introduced but put off during the last session of the General Assembly.

Alfonso, who arrived at URI in March, helped create a research foundation and research park at the University of North Dakota. He knows other states have far outpaced Rhode Island in the race to transform the work that’s done in classrooms and labs into revenue and jobs.

The University of Massachusetts’ licensing office, founded in 1994, has grown each year and developed into the Office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property. For the year that ended June 30, $41.4 million was derived from licensing pharmaceutical technologies, educational software products and research tools. There was also a one-time sale of stock acquired through a license. The CVIP reported that UMass research resulted in 174 inventions, 196 patent applications and 78 licenses.

The CVIP also claimed it worked with the Massachusetts Technology Transfer center, faculty, managers and investors to create new companies around its campuses, such as ACT (Amherst), Konarka (Lowell), Polnox (Lowell), RXi (Worcester), Encapsion (Lowell) and SunEthanol (Amherst).

When the UMass faculty returned to the five campuses, President Jack M. Wilson encouraged the professors to continue to do world-class research. Their work not only creates a healthy intellectual environment, he said, but also attracts other top-tier researchers and helps bring cutting-edge technologies to market.

All of that gives Massachusetts, and its economy, a head start.

It’s time for Rhode Island to catch up.

Dunk operator to pay federal fine

SMG, the operator of the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, has agreed to pay a $1,500 fine after federal inspectors found inadequate protection from falls for the stagehands who set up shows at the arena.

The violation was discovered in April by inspectors from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, who were responding to a complaint, according to Ted Fitzgerald, an assistant regional director for the agency.

The Dunk is owned by the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority, an independent state agency.

The citation, issued last month, alleged that SMG has been endangering employees by exposing them to 25-foot falls while they are working from roof ball joists to rig equipment for concerts and other shows. SMG has also failed to provide fall protection training, according to OSHA.

The violation was classified as “serious,” a less-severe designation than “willful” or “repeated,” Fitzgerald said.

A serious citation is issued when death or serious physical harm is likely to result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known, Fitzgerald said in an e-mail.

In a settlement with OSHA, SMG agreed to make improvements by Nov. 14, when the arena is scheduled to reopen after a six-month closure for an unrelated overhaul. If it does not, the penalty will double, according to the settlement agreement documents.

The agreement also requires SMG to develop a written safety and health program, and to train at least one employee on safe rigging and inspection procedures.

The fall-protection improvements will add $83,575 to the $80.5-million renovation project, according to Lawrence J. Lepore, the arena’s executive director.

But James P. McCarvill, the convention center authority’s executive director, said the enhanced fall protection was long planned. “It’s something we’ve had in the program,” he said. “It really wasn’t unanticipated.”

More trouble ahead for housing

Loan delinquencies and foreclosures rose nationwide in the second quarter and are likely to continue to increase into next year, according to last week’s report from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The MBA surveyed the 50 states and said the average percentage of loans in default was 5.1 percent and the average percentage of delinquent, subprime adjustable-rate loans was 16.7 percent.

For Rhode Island, 5 percent of all loans were in default; 20.4 percent of subprime ARMS are delinquent.

For Massachusetts, 4.5 percent of all loans were in default; 19.8 percent of subprime ARMS are delinquent.

“We do not yet believe we have seen the peak,” said Doug Duncan, the MBA’s chief economist.

Mixed Fed report for the Northeast

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, will gather the Open Market Committee on Sept. 18 to decide if the slowing economy requires a cut in interest rates. Once source of data is the beige book summary, named for the color of the cover of the report, which last week said, “Outside of real estate, reports that the turmoil in financial markets had affected economic activity during the survey period were limited.”

Here’s what the report said about the Northeast: “Business contacts expressed ‘increased uncertainty,’ and many said recent developments in financial markets were obscuring near-term outlook. Retailers said sales were mixed and they were concerned about how consumers would hold up… Furniture, apparel and computers sold well. Manufacturers reported strength in export markets and noted that material costs had stabilized. Firms in the commercial real estate market noted a ‘significant tightening of credit,’ and one contact expressed concern about a major disturbance in non-residential sales. Home sales and prices throughout the region were mixed. Sales and prices were up in Massachusetts, but were down in New Hampshire and Rhode Island.”

Providence is a hot spot for travel

What does Providence have in common with Almaty, Kazakhstan, Rwanda and Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi.

They’re all included in a recent list by The Wall Street Journal of developing hot travel destinations.

The Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau likes Providence’s inclusion in the grouping and is preparing to “merchandise” that designation, and others in recent magazine stories.

For example, in June, Food and Wine magazine declared that major cities such as San Francisco had lost their “monopoly on innovative chefs, food artisans, mixologists and other talents.” The magazine pegged the start of Providence’s culinary renaissance in 1980, with the opening of Al Forno. It highlighted the flapjacks at Nick’s on Broadway and the espresso-cream cheese at La Laiterie, the new restaurant attached to the Farmstead cheese shop in Wayland Square.

In its fall travel guide this month, Travel and Leisure magazine also played up Providence, saying the formerly “desolate downtown,” a “bleak DMZ” in the early 1990s, now boasts “fantastic restaurants” and a river where wine-sipping couples cruise around in gondolas.

Even Spirit, the in-flight magazine for Southwest Airlines, jumped on the bandwagon. The magazine talked up Newport and Providence, promoting Trinity Rep and walking tours on Benefit Street in Providence, and in Newport, a stroll on the Cliff Walk and the clam chowder and lobster salad at the Black Pearl.

All the endorsements are not totally free. In February, for the second time in two years, Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau, wined and dined about 40 travel journalists in New York City to urge them to write about Providence.

The event — cosponsored by the Providence Tourism Council and held at Christie’s auction house — was catered by chefs from several Providence restaurants, including CAV and Siena.

It was attended by representatives from cultural organizations such as WaterFire and the RISD Museum. In all, it cost $16,000.

Still, Sheridan says, it was much cheaper than buying full-page ads in the national publications that recently featured Rhode Island.

“So many high-profile hits coming in the same period, that is a little unusual for us,” Sheridan said. “These go a long way in our industry.”

After the bell…

•Nordstrom, the Seattle-based retailer with an anchor store in the Providence Place mall since 1999, opened its first store in Masssachusetts last week, at the Natick Mall. Both are owned by General Growth Properties (GGP:NYSE), the real estate investment trust based in Chicago. Nordstrom entered New England in 1997 with a store in Farmington, Conn.

•Boston-based Fidelity Investments is hiring 49 people to open a research and development office in Galway, in western Ireland. Fidelity has had a presence in Ireland since 1996 and already employs 300 in Galway and Dublin.

•George A. Vecchione, of Warwick, president and chief executive officer of Lifespan, has been elected to the board of directors of The Providence Mutual Fire Insurance Co.

•Progresso Latino will mark its 30th anniversary on Sept. 21 at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet. The gala features Marisa Rivera-Albert, president of the National Hispana Leadership Institute.

With reports from Journal Staff Writer Benjamin G. Gedan and the Associated Press

John Kostrzewa is the Journal’s business editor. Share an anecdote from the world of business by sending it to pjbiz@projo.com