Universities and their inventors earned more than $1.8-billion from commercializing their academic research in the 2011 fiscal year, collecting royalties from new breeds of wheat, from a new drug for the treatment of HIV, and from longstanding arrangements over enduring products like Gatorade. Northwestern University earned the most of any institution reporting, with more than $191-million in licensing income. The 157 universities that responded to the annual survey of the Association of University Technology Managers, released on Monday, completed 5,398 licenses and filed for 12,090 new patents. They also created 617 start-up companies. The overall revenue figures are about the same as in the 2010 fiscal year, when 155 universities responded. The number of licenses and options completed in 2011 was notably higher than the 4,735 reported in 2010, but in part that was because some institutions began to include more of them in their totals. The number of new patent applications filed was also higher. The totals include data from four institutions that answered anonymously and are not included in the sortable table that accompanies this article. (Year-to-year comparisons for the survey are imperfect because, in some years, institutions that are the most active in patenting and licensing don't participate. Also some participating institutions provide only partial responses.) The 617 start-up companies formed in 2011 was a slight increase from the 613 reported in the previous year. Start-up companies appeared to be a growing focus for some of the institutions in the survey. In 2010, 12 institutions reported forming 10 or more companies; in 2011, 14 institutions did so. That attention reflects broader economic forces. With big corporations doing less and less hiring, there is "more of an awareness from students and faculty that entrepreneurship is a growing career path, a growing alternative." New Ph.D. recipients now realize that one way to continue their research is "though the venture path."