COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business was created to assess the commercial and economic viability of technology developed at Battelle.
During a six-month pilot, Battelle’s National Security Global Business provided more than 50 innovations — from millimeter wave technology used in telecommunications to a flame retardant derived from soybeans — to the Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (TEC) center, which evaluated the innovations for their commercial potential, Battelle said in a release.
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The pilot went so well, the science and technology institute has agreed to work with the center for two more years, splitting profits with the university when it takes the commercial lead. The partnership eventually could extend to some of Battelle’s other businesses, such as its Health and Life Sciences Global Business.
Some of the technologies already evaluated were “deemed to have superior market potential,” Battelle said. The TEC Center, which is staffed by faculty and graduate students, is doing more analysis for a few of these inventions to determine the best commercial strategies.
“This unique project is another example of our collaboration and partnership with Ohio State on several levels,” said Steve Kelly, president of Battelle’s National Security Global Business, in the release. “We want our ideas to become products that people can use and this is exactly the kind of agreement that can help that process along.”
Those aims dovetail with the university’s. “Part of our mission as the state’s leading research and educational institution is applying our expertise and resources to improve the economic health of Ohio,” said S. Michael Camp, academic director for the Center of Entrepreneurship at Ohio State, in the release. “One step in that process is identifying technologies and inventions that can foster new business and create jobs.”
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The center came about through the relationship of Spencer Pugh, vice president and manager of the industrial and international sector of Battelle’s National Security business, and Camp. “Michael Camp, professor with the entrepreneurship center, and I have worked together for several years,” Pugh said. Some of Camp’s graduate students have learned how to be entrepreneurs by using Battelle intellectual property in their exercises.
Pugh began to ask himself, “How can we get outside eyes to give a hard look at our technologies?” The answer was to formalize his relationship with Camp in the OSU center, Pugh said.
Now, Battelle folks know better than anybody how to commercialize a product. But OSU provides Battelle a second opinion on the market value of its technology, Pugh said.
The center’s technology evaluation starts with early-stage screening and can end with a detailed commercialization plan. Battelle will pay the OSU center both a monthly fee and a per-evaluation fee, Pugh said, declining to name the amounts.
If the TEC Center takes the lead on commercializing a product — likely because it’s a “strategy that’s not what we want to invest our time in” — Battelle would share profits like licensing fees, royalties or, in the case of a spin-off company, return on investment with OSU, he said.
Battelle and Ohio State have been close, in proximity and collaboration. Battelle is across the street from the university campus and has provided Ohio State more than $88 million in the last 10 years in research grants, fellowships and other contributions.
In September, Blake Thompson was appointed as a vice president who works for both organizations to foster cooperation between the two institutions. Thompson is a kind of collaboration ambassador charged with energizing joint research and economic development efforts.
Thompson is former director of university partnerships for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory — which Battelle runs — and a longtime colleague of Battelle’s president and CEO, Jeff Wadsworth.
Wadsworth, for his part, chairs Ohio State University’s Medical Center Board that is reviewing the interaction between the center’s five hospital boards. Meanwhile, Barbara Kunz, president of Health and Life Sciences Global Business at Battelle, is a member of OSU’s Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital’s board.
