Call them the littler schools that could.

That’s the theme of a just-released study on technology transfer that looked at the surprising tech transfer results of a number of smaller colleges and universities whose research and development budgets fell far short of the funds expended by tech development superstars such as MIT and Stanford.

The lesson learned, say the study’s authors, is that a good combination of partnerships, incentives, and federal and local funding can help move research into the commercial arena, even when a school’s R&D budget is modest.

The commercialization of academic research is big business. According to the study, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, in the last 10 years academic institutions have nearly doubled the number of licenses executed and more than doubled the number of startups launched. Universities that responded to the Association of University Technology Managers Licensing Survey reported that gross license income from licenses to corporations and startups in 2005 totaled about $1.6 billion. The Tech Transfer Payoff

The study, prepared by Innovation Associates, a consulting firm in Reston, Va., highlighted a number of smaller programs that are developing new technologies through academic research, licensing the inventions, and helping launch businesses that use them. With fewer resources than the big players, however, these schools have to think creatively to contribute to the greater economic development of their state or region.

Technology transfer, the process of turning scholarly work into a marketable and practical product or service, spans a broad range of possibilities. In other words, it’s not necessarily about coming up with the next iPod. “Innovation is not always high-tech,” says Diane Palmintera, president of Innovation Associates and lead author of the study. “Innovation and new technology businesses can be based on advancement in different fields.”

Leveraging the strengths of a university, Palmintera adds, can help it compete. For example, she says the University of Pittsburgh is finding success by getting funding from the National Institutes of Health and spinning off biotechnology businesses and Iowa State University carved out a niche in agriculture. Engines of Local Development

One of the concepts that infuses the entrepreneurial culture of such programs in rural areas is “think globally, act locally.” Because the school provides licenses or seed funding and office space, the companies often feel indebted to it and to the state or region. As a result, all parties involved share the goal of contributing to the economic development of the university’s home state, region, or even country, depending on the potential magnitude of the business at hand.

John Finley II, chairman and chief executive of MemPro Ceramics, says he considers the University of Akron the primary economic developer in northeastern Ohio. His company, which provides filtration products for various industries, agreed to a licensing arrangement with the University of Akron in 2005 after a professor there encouraged him to take a look at the school’s nanofiber research. Finley says the arrangement with the university has taken his firm from an outlook of $50 million to $100 million in opportunities to the tens of billions of dollars. He is so committed to the university and its relationship with his business that he’s moving the company headquarters to Akron. He’s already based there himself. Use It or Lose It

Universities have always played a role in economic development. After all, it’s their responsibility to educate the workforce and keep U.S. employees ahead of the pack, says Thomas Sharpe, associate vice-president for economic development at the University of Iowa. Today the commitment to technology transfer allows universities yet another way to disseminate knowledge, through their inventions and discoveries, he says.

Educators call them “teachable moments,” and whether the students are in third grade or grad school the idea is the same—to draw lessons from real-world events. The subprime mortgage meltdown and the ongoing shocks to the global economy have created a multibillion-dollar teachable moment in business schools, where students dissect exactly what happened and the lessons that can be drawn to prevent similar economic earthquakes.

Indeed, the problems that began with the implosion of the subprime market were being flagged by some business school researchers several years before financial institutions started reporting extensive writeoffs of subprime mortgages in 2007. But as the effects of the crisis continue to spread, terms such as CDOs and SIVs have become part of the lexicon in many mainstream business school courses covering such areas as real estate finance, ethics, and fixed-income securities.

For instance, at «www.businessweek.com» in St. Louis, a graduate-level real estate finance course used a case study on how sophisticated debt instruments magnified the effects of the subprime crisis. Meanwhile, MBA students at Miami University’s Farmer School of Business examined Countrywide Financial’s («www.businessweek.com») fire sale merger with Bank of America («www.businessweek.com») as part of their enterprise risk management studies.

For the short term, at least, the subprime meltdown and debt crisis are going to be one of the hot topics for discussion in MBA and undergrad business courses, according to business school deans and other academics. But it will take the full unwinding and some historical perspective to see whether the crisis will permanently change the business school curriculum.

“I’m not sure whether or not new courses will be created,” says Paul Portney, dean of the «www.businessweek.com» at the University of Arizona. “But in the credit risk modeling class there’s no question that the examples would be drawn exactly from what we’ve seen the past couple of years. There won’t be a top-notch business school that won’t find a way to work this in.” Live and Learn

At Eller, the impulse to use the real estate meltdown as a classroom subject is heightened because the market downturn has hit Arizona, which has had a huge spurt of second-home and retirement home development, especially hard, Portney says. “There’s no question this has gotten our attention. There were a lot of people who should have known better.”

Undergraduate programs are also finding study material in the financial mess. At the «www.businessweek.com» in Boulder, for instance, topics discussed in a course called “Business Applications of Social Responsibility” include the question of a company’s responsibility to protect consumers from themselves, Dennis Ahlburg, dean of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business, said in an e-mail. “The course discusses the case brought against McDonald’s by two youths blaming the high fat content and calories in the company’s menu for their extreme obesity,” Ahlburg said. “The issue is the same as a mortgage broker or bank executive facing pressures to offer home buyers loans they may or may not be able to afford.”

The Chronicle is interested in speaking with people who are now seeking or have just bought residential property in the nine-county Bay Area. We’re particularly interested in talking with first-time home buyers who think the real estate slump makes homes more affordable to them, as well as investors who see this as a good buying opportunity. If you’d like to talk, please e-mail a brief description of your situation to realestate@sfchronicle.com.