Turning research into commercial products, seeding startup companies and building stronger research-based relationships with companies in the Sacramento region are the aims of a range of new initiatives on campus.
"It represents a traditional facet of our mission playing out in a different way, " said Alan Bennett, executive director of the Office of Technology Transfer at the UC Office of the President.
"Until recently, Sacramento hasn't had the business development expertise and investment capital resources of San Diego or the Bay Area," Bennett said. But that's changing fast as businesses and investors take more advantage of local research enterprises, especially at UC Davis.
Bennett, who is also a vegetable crops professor, will return to UC Davis full time July 1 as Associate Vice Chancellor for Technology and Industry Alliances, a new position in the Office of Research.
He will take responsibility for programs including the Technology Transfer Center, directed by Larry Fox; Research Outreach and development of the Research Park, directed by Mona Ellerbrock; UC Davis CONNECT, directed by Nora Moore Jimenez; and a new program in Technology Business Development run by Executive Director David McGee.
"My objective is to pull these pieces together and make it easier for private sector companies to interact with the university," Bennett said.
McGee, a veteran of biotech and genomics startup companies, will complement the activities of the Technology Transfer Center and CONNECT by working with researchers and industry on specific high-potential projects to commercialize inventions, especially from the School of Medicine. He will look for all kinds of commercial opportunities, including "spinning out" companies.
"There's no specific route," he said. "Every business has a different opportunity."
McGee brings plenty of practical experience to his new role. In 1982, he helped start SunGene Technologies Corporation, an agricultural biotech company, at the Stanford Business Park. In 1987, he co-founded Biosource Genetics, now called Large Scale Biology Corporation, and has worked there for the past 16 years. The company uses a patented technology to introduce genes for pharmaceuticals into plants using plant viruses.
Bennett's office will help guide faculty entrepreneurs through issues such as conflict of interest and how to divide their commitments between campus and corporation. The openness of campus research is a strength that supports creativity, Bennett said. "We don't want to lose sight of our university values."
The appointments are among a number of steps the campus is taking to boost entrepreneurship. The Office of Research has appointed an External Research Advisory Board to enhance research collaborations with industry. It has sponsored a series of events with CONNECT to bring faculty, business representatives and potential investors together. CONNECT is also organizing this month's Sacramento Regional Life Science Summit.
The Technology Transfer Center has been expanding in scope and staffing since 1999 and has recently conducted workshops for faculty, researchers and staff on subjects such as understanding intellectual property and patenting processes. The center handles all steps from evaluating initial invention disclosures to patenting and licensing inventions to companies.
CONNECT, also started in 1999, promotes links between the campus and industry and provides a network of advice and mentoring for faculty interested in developing their ideas commercially.
Together, the research outreach programs, Technology Transfer Center, CONNECT and McGee's activities are intended to supply a continuum of services that help faculty establish productive private sector research partnerships and guide budding entrepreneurs from the initial steps of preparing and filing patents, through finding partners and investors, to raising finances and setting up companies, said Lynne Chronister, associate vice chancellor for research administration.
The 38-acre Research Park along Old Davis Road will provide space for tech startups and companies that want to collaborate with UC Davis researchers. It will welcome its first tenants next year. But the campus is also looking at other ways to help startups get off the ground.
One is a business "incubator" at McClellan Park. It would provide office and lab space for new companies for up to two years, until they have the resources to lease their own space. The project is a collaboration between Sacramento County, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Authority, McClel-lan Park and the university, with funding from external sources.
"This kind of space is the hardest to find, because it needs to be flexible," Bennett said. Incubator space gives companies time to test the marketplace, and either grow or die, he said.
Campus administrators are also considering an "innovation center," a small business incubator with support services in or near Davis.
On the academic side, the Graduate School of Management intends to place MBA students in fellowships with campus units where they can learn about technology transfer and business development first-hand. The management school already offers joint degrees with the College of Engineering and MBA students organize the popular Big Bang! business plan competition.
Traditionally, land-grant universities have shared the results of agricultural and environmental research through Cooperative Extension programs. But turning an invention into a product takes a lot of money -- for example, a new drug might cost an additional $100 million in research and $500 million to meet regulatory requirements before reaching the pharmacist's shelf. Commercialization is the only way that such inventions can be accessible to the public, McGee said.
With its different colleges and professional schools, UC Davis has a broader base to draw on than any other UC campus, McGee said. That technology base lends itself to a very bright future, he said.
Bennett sees the potential for UC Davis to be as strong in technology transfer as UC San Diego or Stanford. The rate at which faculty disclose inventions has been rising fast; faculty are increasingly looking at how they can apply fundamental research; and Bay Area investors are looking outward for new opportunities.
"Davis needs to put itself on the map as being ready for business and capable of interacting with business," he said.