The Fort Collins Coloradoan
October 20, 2004

CSU Invests in Ideas
By Nikolaus Olsen

Colorado State University is looking to reconnect with its land-grant institution roots by building an economic-development bridge to the region’s private sector.

The proposed Office of Economic Development would be a two-way bridge to assist CSU faculty in bringing innovative research to the market and help private companies benefit from the presence of CSU’s educational mission.

“The office is designed to act essentially as a portal from the university to the private sector,” said Senior Vice President Tony Frank. That means CSU faculty members who are more into research than marketing will be able to receive help when it comes to taking their innovative research public.

It’s an idea called technology transfer, and the end result could generate a big boost in research funding for CSU’s colleges. Private companies could provide funding for specific research, Frank said.
“Here is a way for a public research university to really provide a return on the state’s investment,” said Frank, who went to other universities, including schools in Wisconsin and Illinois, to see firsthand how they assist technology transfer.

CSU excels in developing innovation and discovery in areas such as veterinary science, microbiotic disease research and mechanical engineering.

For example, the office could advise a researcher whether it would be more beneficial to sell the patent and license of new research or move it out as a spinoff company, Frank said.

But it’s not just the university that will benefit from the office, Frank said. Private-sector companies will benefit, too.

For example, a construction company that wanted its employees to be aware of more environmentally friendly ways to build, known as green construction, would be able to contract with CSU to provide classes about new techniques instead of sending all its employees to school to get another degree.

CSU President Larry Penley said the new office has been established in the spirit of the original mission of a land-grant institution. He proposed the information of an Office of Economic Development in his annual fall address Sept. 14.

“Technology transfer is not an easy thing to do,” Penley said.
But when CSU can benefit the community, the effort highlights its value to the public and further validates the taxpayer money that has been invested in the institution, Penley said.

As the general manager XY Inc., a Fort Collins bioscience company founded in 1996 using CSU research, Thom Gilligan said the proposed office would have helped the company.

“It would have been great to have it around seven years ago when we got going,” Gilligan said.

XY Inc. successfully uses high-speed instruments to separate animal sperm to meet clients’ needs. For example, a dairy farmer wanting cows instead of bulls could use the technology to get what he wanted.

Gilligan said technology transfer would be most beneficial to the community if spinoff companies remained local. That would help improve the job market, he said.

To better classify its research, CSU’s strategic plan groups the university’s research fields into “super clusters” that match the top industries in Colorado’s private sector, to benefit both the region and CSU.

By grouping the super clusters, CSU hopes not only to attract more researchers in the field, but also more businesses to the community that want to be a part of an industry, Frank said.

“You get enough people working on a topic, you start to attract the ancillary businesses,” Frank said.