Helping tech firms fly: SBTDC provides specialized technology commercialization services.

• Position: RESEARCH NORTH CAROLINA: SMALL BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT CENTER

Lucinda Camras comes from a long line of inventors. Her father, Carl Camras, discovered a new class of drugs (prostaglandin analogues) to treat glaucoma that remain the first-line treatment in the field. By the time she was 19, she and her father had created a new glaucoma device and surgical approach.

They worked together on the design and towards pursuing licensing agreements and funding. In 2009, Lucindas father passed away, but she obtained a PhD and continued their work to make their idea into a viable product.

According to Lucinda, "Our first attempt at funding failed so we were looking for a funding strategy and a colleague of mine recommended the Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC). They helped us tailor our Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) application for our firm Camras Vision to the granting agency and knew how to package it. We wouldn't have been able to get off the ground without the SBTDC."

Founded in 1984, the North Carolina SBTDC was the first Small Business Development Center in the nation to be officially recognized as providing specialized technology commercialization services. The SBTDC is a business advisory service of The University of North Carolina System administered statewide by NC State University. Its 10 regional centers and 16 offices across the state are hosted by UNC System campuses and provide business counseling and educational services for thousands of small to midsize businesses each year.

The SBTDC's Technology Development and Commercialization Program's primary goals are providing counseling services to clients with technology-based businesses throughout North Carolina, and engaging with UNC System campuses to bring promising technologies to market. Counselors work closely with tech transfer offices, and sit on patent committees at several campuses.

Similar to Camras Vision, SBTDC technology commercialization clients typically have the following characteristics: (1) an innovative technology-based concept, product, service or process; (2) intellectual property that serves as a foundation for a competitive advantage; (3) high potential for growth; (4) a high level of uncertainty/risk; and (5) don't qualify for traditional financing.

Many of the clients benefit from the Tech Team's expert counsel on the national SBIR/ STTR Program, a non-dilutive federal funding mechanism to help small businesses develop and commercialize innovative solutions to existing problems that the...