Tech transfer on the rise: cleantech-connected schools help push ideas, technologies to market.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION

COLORADO'S UNIVERSITIES ARE PLAYING AN INCREASINOLY active role in laying the groundwork for the state's startup community, with an especially keen focus on cleantech.

Trent Yang, director of CU Cleantech, works with the CU Technology Transfer Office to help spin off startups and license cleantech developed at CU. "The university is a fairly significant driver of economic growth," says Yang, citing companies like Sundrop Fuels and OPX Biotechnologies as recent success stories. "We help identify great technologies that can he useful in industry."

Beyond catalyzing tech transfer, Yang wants to boost entrepreneurialism among students. Last year saw the inaugural CU Cleantech New Venture Challenge, a $100,000 business-plan competition, and the 2013 event is on the calendar for April. "The goal is to get students to be more entrepreneurial," says Yang.

Will Vaughan, director of technology transfer at Colorado School of Mines, started in 2008. "Our first fiscal year, we had 11 disclosures (by faculty inventors)," he says. "Last year, we had 33." Vaughan says Mines is unique because it receives nearly half of its research funding from industry, versus 3 percent to 5 percent at CU and CSU. "(Researchers) have this little kernel in the back of their mind to get it out there to market." Faculty culture is key, he adds. "You can publish and patent at the same time. It's not an either-or proposition."

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Grants or up to $35,000 are available from the Colorado School of Mines Research Foundation for proof-of-concept funding. Numerous cleantech concepts are in the pipeline now, says Vaughan. "This push for cleantech really came a couple of years ago," he adds. "We're just on the cusp of getting some of the interesting technologies out there."

At CSU, Tim Reeser is vice...