In a few short years, technology transfer won't be the sole province of the University of Wisconsin-Madison or UW-Milwaukee.
In fact, it's already spreading to Wisconsin's smaller universities, if the early-stage success of UW-Platteville spin-off Graphene Solutions is any indication. Last month, the nanotechnology business won the 2008 Governor's Business Plan Contest, and several research programs that could someday lead to similar tech transfer were on display last week at the Wisconsin Science and Technology Symposium at UW-Stout.
The symposium was revealing and encouraging, especially for those who believe the state's so-called "comprehensive campuses" can contribute to the strategy of building an economy around biotechnology and clean energy. One of those believers is Gov. Jim Doyle, who addressed the symposium on July 17.
Doyle noted the contributions of the WiSys Technology Foundation, which is trying to accommodate technology transfer from the comprehensive campuses in much the same way its parent organization, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, does at UW-Madison. Doyle called WiSys' efforts to apply WARF's tech transfer methods around the state as "incredibly important" to unlocking research and commercial development from that research.
Tech triumvirate
Another interested observer was Tom Wyrobek, president of Hysitron, a maker of nano-mechanical test instruments based in Eden Prairie, Minn. In the past, Hysitron has collaborated with the likes of the University of Minnesota, the University of California Berkeley, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but now it is looking for collaborations with smaller, sometimes hungrier institutions.
Thanks to research that is growing in sophistication, some smaller schools have become the darlings of federal funding agencies. "When they get a pot of money, something will happen, as opposed to larger schools where you don't know," Wyrobek said.
The WARF tech transfer model isn't the only one in play. Lance Kuhn, customer service manager for Hysitron, said the company has been using a model that involves what he called the new technology triumvirate: smaller tech companies that develop cutting-edge products, academic institutions that validate the technology's efficacy (with faculty and student involvement), and industry that puts it to good use.
"They [industry] are the ones that have the real need and are the ultimate benefactors," Kuhn noted.
At UW-Madison, tech transfer has been part of the "Wisconsin Idea" for decades, but now smaller universities are lining up for a piece of the $150 billion federal R&D pot. About $1.5 billion of that is for nanotech initiatives, and that's where several of Wisconsin's comprehensive campuses come in.
The UW-Stouts and UW-Eau Claires of the world, not to mention tech colleges like Chippewa Valley Technical College, not only complement research being done at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, they can complement and collaborate with one another. In fact, that's just what they are doing with the NanoRite Center for Innovation, a nanotech research center on the campus of CVTC. Together, they may do even more to fill the high-tech space between the Twin Cities and Eau Claire.
Charles Sorensen, chancellor at UW-Stout, expects the partnership to have a profound impact on economic development in northwestern Wisconsin and on the region's ability to attract segments of the creative class. "We are planning out a very careful way to be a major player in applied research for the UW comprehensives and in this I-94 corridor from Minneapolis to Eau Claire, which is a growth corridor," Sorensen said.
He's not alone in that view. Virtually every UW campus is trying to leverage faculty-student research. On display at the Science and Technology Symposium were programs in genomics (UW-Stout), tissue engineering and high-oil corn (UW-River Falls), solid-state lighting (UW-Oshkosh), and nanoscale electronics (UW-Stevens Point).
Capitalizing on research
While the short-term, problem-solving benefits of the research has industry taking a close look, venture capitalists are taking the long view. Charlie Goff, general partner of the Appleton-based New Capital Fund, agreed that ramped-up research is a legitimate thrust for the likes of UW-Stout, but the ability to transfer research from the lab to the marketplace ultimately will determine whether these technologies attract risk capital.
"You have to find something that is close enough to prime time so that risk capital isn't going to get tired," Goff said. "I'm not sure there is more than a handful, but we have to be aware of these things as they occur."
Comments