Whether it’s nanotech, information tech or biotech, Wisconsin universities generate technologies with the potential to become startups or part of a growing business. Identifying and developing those scientific findings into commercial applications is the basis of technology transfer, a key component to economic development strategy in Wisconsin and the nation.

The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) reports that in 2008, 3,280 U.S. Patents were issued, 648 new commercial products were introduced and 595 new companies were formed nationally as a result of university research.
Wisconsin universities are the hub of innovation that will create jobs, improve lives and revitalize Wisconsin’s economy. Yet researchers and scientists on Wisconsin campuses are not always focused on the commercial potential and real world application of their discoveries.

Moving discoveries out of universities and into industry is the charge of university technology transfer offices and organizations such as the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, WiSys, Stout Technology Transfer Institute  and the UW-Milwaukee Research Foundation. These offices protect intellectual property rights, connect companies with university faculty expertise for product development and launch startups around university discoveries.

Patrick Heaney started NCD Technologies around an innovative engineering material he developed as a PhD student at UW-Madison. Heaney’s nanocrystaline diamond coatings can improve the performance and functionality of miniaturized electronic, medical and mechanical devices.

In May Heaney received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research grant of $150,000 to fund a technology feasibility study.  Heaney has also formed a strategic alliance with Performance Micro Tool in Janesville which will further advance his innovation toward commercialization. He expects to hire employees by the end of 2010.

Madison has a long history of technology transfer. NSF statistics place UW-Madison third in the nation for dollars spent on research in fiscal year 2008. Over half of the $882 million spent came from federal sources, making UW-Madison second in the nation for federally funded research expenditures.  The challenge in Wisconsin is to fully utilize the intellectual power found on campuses throughout the state.

Guiding the transfer

“Intellectual property is no good if it is sitting here locked up in the university,” says Brian Thompson, president of the UW-Milwaukee Research Foundation, which has a current portfolio of 30 issued or applied for patents.   “We need to find ways to get it into the hands of people that can take it to market. We are currently managing five active license or option agreements.”

The Research Foundation also administers a Catalyst Grant program which has awarded more than $1.5 million to seed projects with high commercial potential.

Working primarily with existing and early stage companies in southeastern Wisconsin, the Research Foundation licenses existing technologies that companies can integrate with their products. It also engages industry and faculty around industry consortiums to work on research projects. UW-Milwaukee has centers focused around water and energy research.

“In both of these cases, companies have come together to help fund research projects that they believe are important,” says Thompson. “They are contributing to the consortium to help guide research done here at the university.”

Area businesses can also access specialized equipment such as electron microscopes at the College of Engineering’s advanced analytical facility and work with faculty members to define a research project or find solutions to problems.

“Through the Water Council, we connected with a small company called Advanced Chemical Systems (ACS), which was looking at new products that they can bring to market,” says Thompson. After meeting with several researchers at UW-Milwaukee, ACS identified the fiber optic detection technology of Dr. Peter Geissinger as a potential platform for a new product. Geissinger received a Catalyst Grant from the Research Foundation to validate this new use for the technology.

“We completed an option agreement, which is the first step to a license,” says Thompson. “And they have been actively involved in helping shepherd the research along. If this works and we can achieve the basic proof of concept, the company may seek investors and go to the next level and take a brand new product to market.”

The Stout Technology Transfer Institute in Menomonie helps start-up businesses advance technologies and provides a variety of technical assistance to entrepreneurs and small businesses. It is also active in advancing university-based technology.

“We will build a research team around that technology through research faculty here at the University and through sister institutions in the UW System,” explains Randy Hulke, STTI director.

The STTI office is on a campus also served by WiSys, which was formed in 2000 to handle patenting and licensing and facilitate campus-industry collaboration at 11 four-year campuses and 13 two-year campuses in the UW system.

The C.O.R.E. Jobs Act signed into law in May extends the scope of technology transfer services and programs administered by WiSys. That includes the Wisconsin Small Company Advancement Program (WISCAP), which facilitates connections between industry and UW System expertise. 

Businesses wishing to tap into intellectual capacity at one of the state’s comprehensive campuses can contact WiSys directly.
“If we have the technology already developed, we will provide them a license. That license also allows access to the technical experts within our campuses,” says Maliyakel John, WiSys managing director.

In many cases a company needs a technology that has not yet been developed. WiSys will then work with them to identify their needs and locate faculty members with the necessary expertise.

“We will put them in touch with the company, and if the company and the faculty member are in agreement that they have some good ideas of how to develop this, then WiSys will provide some funding to the campus to conduct the research,” says John.

That funding comes through the WISCAP initiative, which devotes $2 million to fund company-campus technology development.
“Once the technology is developed, we will transfer that technology back to the company, and they can make the product, and they can grow,” John says.

WiSys is already involved in discussions with about 24 companies throughout the state.

“Small companies want to develop technologies so they can stay above the competition and expand their businesses,” says John, who stresses the benefits of pairing Wisconsin’s smaller companies and smaller universities. “Why not put our students and our faculty experts to work and at the same time create jobs at our small campuses?  There is significant business growth in Madison and Milwaukee, but what happens in our smaller cities?

“I think that this is really a model to engage all of the state in business growth. We can’t afford to develop just one or two regions in the state. We need to engage the universities outside of those areas.”

In the last two years, WiSys has helped form three tech-based companies: Oshkosh Nanotechnology LLC; Mycophyte Discovery LLC in La Crosse; and Graphene Solutions LLC in Platteville.

“This is a positive sign that we can create start up companies in smaller cities,” says John, who notes that it may take a few years before companies actually start hiring people. “This is business growth. Most of the job growth is coming from small companies. Some of the companies will fail, but some will become the next bigger companies.”

Challenges and opportunities

While the benefits of an active technology transfer strategy are clear, there are challenges in connecting researchers with businesses to best utilize the vast intellectual power on our campuses.

“Most researchers on campus do research mainly for the point of research,” says WEN Director Kathy Collins, who assists with business start up and technology transfer.  “They may not really think about how to put that into a product.”

Collins notes the importance of identifying researchers and businesses that can work together. “It is a lot more viable and cost effective to have them work together at the early stage to transfer that technology into the marketplace, rather than have them continue to develop something that might not be realistic in the real world,” she says.

WEN regional directors and the state’s technology transfer offices are involved in matchmaking to initiate those connections and help determine if a product or technology can be integrated into a company or can advance as a stand alone technology.

Time presents another challenge. “We have a lot of skill sets and talents in our faculty, but we are pulling them in a lot of different directions,” says STTI’s Hulke. “To access their expertise and put them in those real world situations with companies and with entrepreneurs gets to be a little difficult from a scheduling perspective.”

Hulke notes the opportunities created by grooming a generation of entrepreneurs. “Not necessarily the skills, but the business sense - getting them up to speed to believe that they can actually start a business and they can commercialize the technologies they are developing. That is a challenge we recognize and that we are working on,” says Hulke.

For STTI and others involved in technology transfer, collaboration is critical. Regional and local economic development groups, UW Extension, Small business Development Centers and WEN are partners that provide a critical gateway to technology transfer services.

“Businesses tend to grow where they start,” says Hulke. “So if you are interested in true economic development, the best way is to start and grow those companies locally. They are going to produce the jobs that are required to grow the state’s economy, and they are going to employ the graduates of our institutions.”

By Leah Call

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