With preliminary planning underway for Innovate ABQ’s first phase of development, a new initiative is also underway to accelerate technology commercialization statewide. Innovate New Mexico will unite the state’s research universities and national labs in efforts to create a “front door” to the innovative technologies being developed across the state. Plans call for a central site (initially located at STC’s Cecchi VentureLab and ultimately housed at the Innovate ABQ incubator) and coordinator to run a program that will work with each partner’s tech transfer office to bring their technologies and the entrepreneurs and investors looking for emerging innovations together for commercialization opportunities. To read more about Innovate New Mexico and its goal to make New Mexico the “state of innovation,” see Kevin Robinson-Avila’s November 16, 2015 articles, “Spirit of innovation accelerates” and “UNM’s tech office getting a jump on Innovate ABQ,” in the Albuquerque Journal’s Business Outlook, reprinted below.
Spirit of innovation accelerates
By Kevin Robinson-Avila / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Monday, November 16th, 2015 at 12:02am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico’s newfound spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship may have ignited with the Innovate ABQ initiative in Downtown Albuquerque, but the fire is rapidly spreading statewide.
NMSU, like the state’s other research universities and labs, is helping startups to take new technologies to market. Here, NMSU student researchers Alexander Pertusini, left, Zach Hale and Lilly Timmons discuss a new model for growing shrimp in arid environments with Tracey Carrillo, right, assistant director of campus farm operations. (Courtesy of NMSU)
The state’s three research universities and national laboratories are working with government officials to expand Innovate ABQ – which aims to build a bustling, high-tech research and development district in the heart of Albuquerque – into a joint project to promote entrepreneurship, homegrown startups and economic development throughout the state.
The partners will pool their resources and capabilities into an umbrella initiative dubbed Innovate New Mexico, where entrepreneurs and investors can rapidly access technology and human talent statewide to build new businesses. The initiative will be coordinated from an office at Innovate ABQ once the Downtown site begins operating, but users will be plugged directly into the broader research network.
KUUTTILA: Making a go-to state for innovation
The partners want to make New Mexico the go-to state for innovation, said Lisa Kuuttila, the University of New Mexico’s chief economic development officer and head of the Science and Technology Corp., UNM’s tech-transfer office.
“Innovate New Mexico will be located at Innovate ABQ, but it will provide the front door to all our research institutions and economic development initiatives,” Kuuttila said.
The office will include a coordinator to help entrepreneurs and investors search for emerging technologies, and locate experts at the labs and universities in all fields of research, from photonics and water to energy and medical diagnostics, Kuuttila said. It will also manage an umbrella website that links to all online resources at state research institutions.
Representatives from all the participating organizations met in September to start building the network. Apart from UNM, that includes New Mexico State University, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, Sandia National Laboratories, the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Sandia National Laboratories is providing technical assistance for companies working with clean energy technology through a new U.S. Department of Energy program that aims to transfer technology, scientific knowledge and expertise to private sector developers. Shown here are wind turbines at Sandia’s facilities in Albuquerque. (Courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories)
The state is participating through the Economic Development Department’s Office of Science and Technology, which coordinates the state-funded Technology Research Collaborative. That program, which also includes representatives from the state’s research institutions, works to identify and promote opportunities for moving locally developed technology into the marketplace.
“We’re working collaboratively to convert New Mexico’s innovations into economic prosperity,” said Office of Science and Technology Director Patricia Knighten. “We recognize that Innovate ABQ is the hotspot right now that everybody is gravitating around, so we want to build on that momentum as part of a statewide innovation effort.”
The state is backing a new Innovate New Mexico application for a $170,000 grant from the U.S. Commerce Department to begin building collaborative activities. The state committed $10,000 in matching funds if the grant gets approved to help finance an annual “technology showcase” event where new inventions from all the research institutions would be on display for entrepreneurs and investors.
Innovate New Mexico will build on technology transfer programs already underway at the participating institutions. The state’s three labs have been working for years to move government-sponsored innovation to market and they all want to accelerate those efforts.
DeRAAD: Praises collaborative efforts
“We want to get our technologies out to where companies can pick them up and turn them into commercial endeavors,” said Casey DeRaad, director of AFRL’s New Mexico Institute. “Collaborative efforts through Innovate New Mexico will raise the level of activity for everyone involved, making the innovation environment more robust.”
Sandia is aggressively encouraging interaction between lab researchers and the business community. The lab is building a new Center for Collaboration and Commercialization to facilitate direct contact between lab personnel and entrepreneurs, and to provide ongoing support for anyone involved in technology transfer. It’s also working closely with UNM to generate private sector interest in technologies jointly developed by the university and the lab.
MOORE: “A common voice for us all”
“Having all the research institutions working together gets everyone to the table and demonstrates the commitment New Mexico has for deploying the technologies that we’re creating,” said Jackie Kerby Moore, manager for technology and economic development at Sandia. “Innovate New Mexico will provide a common voice for all of us.”
All three research universities have stepped up their tech-transfer efforts. UNM’s STC is perhaps the most successful to date, with 73 new startup companies formed in the past 10 years to take UNM technologies to market.
But both New Mexico Tech and NMSU are also energetically commercializing inventions. New Mexico Tech formed a new Center for Leadership in Technology Commercialization last year to train its students in technology transfer and pair them with faculty who want to commercialize lab innovations.
And NMSU has intensified its support for entrepreneurship and startup activities through its Arrowhead Center Inc. The center offers hands-on training and assistance for students and others pursuing business ventures. That includes two incubators, one for marketing technology developed at NMSU and the other for students or alumni developing any type of business.
Nearly 90 students and alumni are now participating in the general incubator and 13 startups are under development in the technology incubator, said Terry Lombard, Arrowhead’s director of intellectual property and technology transfer.
“Collaboration through Innovate New Mexico will build on New Mexico’s strengths by showcasing all the great technologies being created around the state,” Lombard said. “It could lead to a lot more innovation and growth in technology transfer. We’re excited.”
Source: http://www.abqjournal.com/676296/biz/labs-universities-creating-a-collaborative.html
UNM’s tech office getting a jump on Innovate ABQ
By Kevin Robinson-Avila / Journal Staff Writer
Monday, November 16th, 2015 at 12:02am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When the Innovate ABQ site opens at Central and Broadway Downtown, the University of New Mexico’s technology-transfer office expects to move all its operations into a roughly 10,000-square-foot space there.
But it could still be one or two years before the high-tech research and development zone begins operating, so UNM’s Science and Technology Corp. is getting a jump now on Innovate ABQ by expanding its offices and activities on campus. The STC nearly doubled its space at UNM’s Science and Technology Park this month, from 6,000 to 10,000 square feet.
UNM’s hair-coloring and patterning technology, dubbed Loboloxe, could soon be headed to market through a new startup company. Shown here are strands of hair colored by the technology, which uses light infractions to place patterns on hair to make different colors when hit by light. (Courtesy of UNM)
The extra room will provide an initial launch pad for Innovate New Mexico, a new initiative to promote technology transfer at research institutions statewide. It will temporarily house UNM’s new Innovation Academy, where UNM students can get direct experience and real-world skills in entrepreneurship, critical thinking and problem-solving. It will offer space for more startup companies to begin commercializing UNM technologies. And it will host international delegations of students and faculty who visit UNM to learn about its tech-transfer program, said STC President and CEO Lisa Kuuttila.
“It could be awhile before we move Downtown, and UNM is doing a lot more things, like the Innovation Academy,” Kuuttila said. “So we expanded our space to start things here that will eventually be part of Innovate ABQ.”
The space will also house a new “entrepreneurial office hours” program with the New Mexico Angels, a group of individual investors who collaborate with UNM to vet new university technologies for commercial potential and then invest in startup companies to take the most promising ones to market. The weekly office hours will allow UNM researchers to meet informally with angel investors for feedback on the marketability of new technology and to learn more about tech transfer in general.
“This lets researchers get out of their labs, and learn something about creating companies and commercializing technology,” said Angels Vice President Dorian Rader. “Technologists are often hesitant to leave their labs but, today, a lot more of them want to apply their technology to help change the world. By having office hours right here at UNM, they won’t have to go far and it’s within their comfort zone.”
The New Mexico Angels are considering launch of a new startup based on UNM technology that would allow people to put color or designs in the hair with a simple sweep of a hand-held device, shown here in a mock demonstration. The Angels’ partnership with the Science and Technology Corp., UNM’s tech-transfer office, has so far led to seven new startup companies.
The UNM-Angels partnership led to the creation in 2012 of the New Mexico Startup Factory LLC, a company-forming incubator that the Angels use to build the initial foundations for new businesses before spinning them out in the market. To date, the Startup Factory has formed seven companies with UNM technologies and it will launch at least two or three more by early 2016, said Angels President John Chavez.
That could include a new UNM technology for people to temporarily color their hair or create hair designs with a simple swipe of a handheld device.
“It’s hair dying without chemicals,” Chavez said. “It uses light infractions to put patterns on people’s hair to make different colors when it’s hit by light. It’s still in the Startup Factory, but we’ll very likely launch a company around this technology because the hair-coloring market is humongous.”
As new startups form, there will now be more space for them to get an initial boost at STC, which provides offices, conference rooms and a variety of services to early-stage companies marketing UNM technologies. The STC expansion means seven more firms can get a start on campus, up from four now, Kuuttila said.
Source: http://www.abqjournal.com/676295/biz/unms-tech-office-getting-a-jump-on-innovate-abq.html