NACET assumes leadership of NAU's technology-transfer activities

In less than a month, the Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies (NACET) will officially open its just-completed 10,000 square-foot facility in Flagstaff. Already, the high-tech business incubator is moving ahead with multiple initiatives to help fledgling science- and technology-based companies in northern Arizona. One of NACET's most-important new roles is to operate Northern Arizona University's technology-transfer program, NAU Ventures.

By law, universities that receive federal research funding must strive to spin off their scientists' discoveries into new products and companies. Since 2006, both NAU and Arizona State University have relied on Arizona Science and Technology Enterprises (AzTE) to lead their technology-transfer activities. NAU Ventures will now focus exclusively on commercializing NAU research.

"NAU Ventures will help NAU in its vital role in promoting the state's economic development through companies and products arising out of innovative faculty research," said NAU president John Haeger.

NAU Ventures will examine invention disclosures by NAU researchers, making recommendations to the university about each invention's commercial viability, said Laura Huenneke, NAU's vice president of research, in Biotech Transfer Week. Where a new technology seems like it could become a product or company, NAU Ventures will help connect university researchers with investors and commercial developers.

"The next several years will be exciting and productive as we transfer more innovations from our laboratories and research centers to address compelling health, environment, and other challenges," Dr. Huenneke said.

"It will still be a university decision as to whether we want to pay for a patent application, for instance, or pay for patent counsel," she said in Biotech Transfer Week. "Meanwhile, the NAU Ventures staff will interact with faculty that might want to take their idea to the next step. This group can help them figure out where to get some private funding."

The new program is being housed in NAU's Applied Research and Development building, under the leadership of NACET's senior technology commercialization advisor, Al Poskanzer. Dr. Poskanzer previously directed the technology-licensing office at ASU and most recently served as the Boeing Co.'s director of technology licensing. He also held a primary role in establishing the intellectual-property policy for the Arizona Board of Regents.

Dr. Poskanzer said that the link between NAU Ventures and NACET is distinctive within the state. "It is really setting a great example for the other two universities," he said in the NAU Lumberjack. "It's the only technological-advancement program (in Arizona) that is joined at the hip with a local incubator."

Dr. Huenneke noted that while technology commercialization could yields substantial revenue streams for the university, in establishing NAU Ventures, NAU is not primarily pursuing its own economic returns.

"In our case, we're more concerned with the professional opportunity for our faculty so we can attract and keep a higher-quality faculty," she said in the Lumberjack. "For students, it's an opportunity to see how creativity at the university can create business opportunities for them in the future."

NAU's decision to shift from contracting with AzTE to NACET was rooted in both entities' growth as commercialization engines.

AzTE, Dr. Huenneke noted in Biotech Transfer Week, is concentrating mainly on ASU's growing research endeavors. Meanwhile, "(NACET is) located right here in Flagstaff. They are able to become very well acquainted with our faculty and research efforts, and they are able to participate on a frequent basis in, for example, entrepreneurship activities aimed at our students and faculty."

Poskanzer said in Biotech Transfer Week that he anticipates NAU Ventures will produce new jobs in northern Arizona. "And hopefully we'll put NAU and Flagstaff on the map with respect to the formation of new high-technology companies that would be headquartered in Flagstaff."

That objective is shared by City of Flagstaff officials, who have supported establishment of the new incubator facility on McMillan Mesa and encouraged the collaboration between NAU and NACET.

"The city of Flagstaff, NAU, and NACET are working in tandem to nurture home-grown businesses for sustainable economic development throughout the region," said Stacey Button, director of the City of Flagstaff's Economic Vitality Division.

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For more information:

"NAU Ventures provides patents," NAU Lumberjack, 10/09/2008

"Northern Arizona University Taps NACET to Revitalize Lackluster Tech-Transfer Program," Biotech Transfer Week, 09/17/2008

"NAU announces venture to put research into action," Inside NAU, 09/10/2008