Category: Interviews
New Mexico State University’s (NMSU) Arrowhead Center is organizing technology commercialization and economic development in Las Cruces, NM as it has since 2004 with 5 strategic business units.
•Arrowhead Technology Incubator and Arrowhead Business and Research Park
•Entrepreneurship Institute
•Intellectual Property
•Policy Analysis
•Workforce Innovation
I recently talked with Melinda Richter, executive director of the San Jose BioCenter, and we spoke about bioincubation in California and what the BioCenter is doing to help young companies bring better therapies to market sooner.
The Business Incubator Association of New York State was formed in 2005 by David Hochman and several colleagues from the incubator world to forge a network of communication between incubators in the state. I recently spoke with David about the Association, and its members.
The San Jose BioCenter has recently been awarded two prestigious, awards for incubation. The National Business Incubation Association's, Randall M. Whaley
Incubator of the Year Award, and the Dinah Adkins Incubator of the Year Award, in the category of Technology with a cash prize of $2,000. The BioCenter is located
in Edenvale Technology Park in San Jose, California. The 40,000 square foot BioCenter provides business and facility services to solvent, compelling, technology companies with identifiable IP assets in the fields of the life sciences, nanotech or cleantech. The BioCenter is a partnership between the City of San Jose, San Jose State University Research Foundation and Prescience International. Since the BioCenter's inception in 2004, incubated companies have raised $800 million in capital and injected more than 600 high technology jobs into the local economy.
Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP) was established as an Economic Development Corporation in 1982 as a means to create and support technological innovation in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Last year marked the 25th Anniversary for BFTP and their 2008 Annual Report states that since 1989 they have boosted the state's economy by $17 billion. There are four regional offices each responsible for supporting companies and entrepreneurs in their area. A little while ago I spoke with Jaron Rhodes Marketing and Communications Manager for Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP). BFTP/SEP is responsible for working with companies in a large region, parts of it include Philadelphia, Bucks County, King of Prussia and Fort Washington.
Purdue Research Foundation has a complex network of resources for small and growing business in its Purdue Research Park network. The Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette has over 360,000 square feet of business incubator space, making it the largest of its kind in the state. Recently the 725-acre park dedicated and officially opened the Herman and Heddy Kurz Purdue Technology Center and Innovation Center to assist the commercialization of new technology by incubating and accelerating high technology innovation.
University at Buffalo (UB) State University of New York (SUNY) Amherst has operated the UB Technology Incubator in the Baird Research Park in Amherst, New York
since 1988. Soon, the 40,000SF incubator is going to get a 40,000SF addition and another 40,000SF incubator is going to be situated on the 5th floor of the new Global Vascular Institute building where construction began last Monday.
I looked at the UB Technology Incubator website www.stor.buffalo.edu and got into touch with Woodrow "Woody" Maggard Associate Vice Provost, University at Buffalo, Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach and Adjunct Professor, UB School of Management and he told me about UB Technology Incubator and the expansion plans. The incubator's goal is to support young companies through business services and facilities until those businesses are able to sustain themselves and grow on their own. The incubator was created in 1988 and has successfully graduated 74 companies in that time.
BioTech Circle (BTC) is a resource for people interested in staying current with biotech information.
The archives date back to 2003 and include scientific articles from primary literature, patents and other articles of a relevant nature. The BioTech Circle website is at www.techmanage.net, the site is organized by Joanne Gucwa and her partner Kazumi Lino. They developed the site in 2001 when they realized the amount of information being generated in the field of bioscience; they decided to make their solution available on the Internet. In addition to the resources already mentioned they offer a variety of professional services in the field of information technology.
The University of Iowa Research Foundation (UIRF) manages the University’s substantial technology commercialization program and has licensed a number of inventions and discoveries to companies that are collaborating with university faculty and to entrepreneurs associated with the University. Until recently, life science companies spun-out from University of Iowa were located on the UI Research Park but were spread across the Park in a number of different facilities. All of that began to change last November with the opening of the BioVentures Center, The University of Iowa’s new business incubator specifically designed for life science companies.
Cumberland Emerging Technologies (CET) is a joint initiative between Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Vanderbilt University and Tennessee Technology Development Corporation (TTDC). CET provides commercialization services to organizations looking to secure intellectual property, license and transfer technology, and commercialize novel technologies. In addition to providing these services to universities, hospitals and businesses in the Cumberland area, CET also provides physical resources and lab space to small companies who also may make use of CET's business services.
