From BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY
Bowling Green State University was recently selected by an Ohio economic development program to receive early-stage funding to commercialize research that could bring difference-making technologies to businesses based in the state.
Ohio Third Frontier, a state-supported economic development commission, awarded BGSU the funding through through its Technology Validation and Start-up Fund (TVSF).
With the support of the Entrepreneurs’ Center based in Dayton, BGSU was the only university that the commission selected among its recent round of funding, which will bolster the university’s Technology Validation and Pre-Commercialization Program.
The Paul J. Hooker Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership continues to collaborate with Research Technology Transfer in the university’s Division of Research to support BGSU-born innovations as they march toward going to market.
“We have brilliant researchers here who are developing technologies that can make a major impact in the world if they’re commercialized,” said David Uhlenhake, director of the Paul J. Hooker Center. “The Tech Validation Start-up Fund offers an injection of funds to help support several of these projects to prepare them for that next stage of commercialization.”
BGSU anticipates funding one project per year with an emphasis on advanced materials, advanced manufacturing, and sensors. Proposals will go in front of a six-member committee, which is scheduled to choose recipients for funding during the fall semester.
Assistant Vice President for Research at BGSU Mark W. Fox said the grant leverages faculty and student research by creating a new pathway that addresses the missing link between a promising new discovery and the marketplace.
BGSU has a history of faculty research creating early-stage start-ups, and funding from the TVSF will play a key role in mitigating risk before these technologies become licensed.
“Through the new Technology Validation and Pre-Commercialization Program, we can fund proof-of-concept studies and other validation activities to help determine whether a technology has real commercial potential,” Fox said. “That work will be informed by potential customers and downstream partners, so we are building the evidence the market actually needs.”
“Ultimately, this helps move BGSU research and creative activity toward products, processes, and other commercial applications,” Fox added.
Uhlenhake said the process of moving a start-up from its early stages to market typically has three hallmarks: feasible technology, a customer validation process in which the technology proves to be a solution, and commercial viability.
Through the TVSF process of bringing technology to market, researchers gain a full portrait of how to commercialize an idea successfully.
“The Tech Validation Start-up Fund really allows us to check all three of those boxes,” Uhlenhake said. “The great part is that this really fills a gap at most research institutions with a process that helps researchers formulate how their technology could go to market.”
During the process of selecting BGSU for funding, reviewers noted the existing research ecosystem at the university, which already has a history of identifying technologies and an infrastructure for supporting faculty in their fields.
Fox said the TVSF can help BGSU build upon what it already does well.
“We already have research strengths, existing entrepreneurship programs, a technology transfer function, and a pipeline of licensable technologies, particularly in areas like advanced materials, advanced manufacturing, and sensors,” Fox said. “I think the selection process recognized that BGSU had the right foundation in place.”
While the project is in its early stages, Uhlenhake said multiple entities at BGSU are working together for winning solutions that benefit both the university community and the state of Ohio.
“What’s cool about a program like this is that it asks the whole university to work together to move these technologies forward,” Uhlenhake said. “We’re working together with every college at the university to solicit and then develop research opportunities, so the whole university is engaged from the beginning.”
