Laserlith Steers a Course to Grand Forks
Laserlith, an Oakland, California based company and leading designer of wireless micro-machined components for defense systems and cell phones, unveiled its future plans in the Research Corridor on March 24, 2008. U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan announced that the company will partner with the UND School of Engineering and Mines and Purdue University’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering to design, test and demonstrate MEMS communication linkages on an unmanned aerial systems platform.
Cassindy Chao, President of Laserlith, stated that the company plans to manufacture defense communication antennas and cell phone transmitter modules in Grand Forks based on proprietary MEMS components that have demonstrated 250 billion cycle reliability and a world record 50 watts of RF power. Ms. Chao expressed Laserlith’s appreciation to the team that worked with them for almost two years leading up to the announcement including U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corporation, UND School of Engineering and Mines, the Research Corridor, the UND Research Foundation and the City of Grand Forks.
Cassindy Chao, President of Laserlith, stated that the company plans to manufacture defense communication antennas and cell phone transmitter modules in Grand Forks based on proprietary MEMS components that have demonstrated 250 billion cycle reliability and a world record 50 watts of RF power. Ms. Chao expressed Laserlith’s appreciation to the team that worked with them for almost two years leading up to the announcement including U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corporation, UND School of Engineering and Mines, the Research Corridor, the UND Research Foundation and the City of Grand Forks.
PROGRESS: Center for commercialization - UND building to team business tenants, life sciences researchers
Out on the west end of the UND campus, down by the railroad tracks, is a half-completed building covered in opaque nylon that represents the culmination of the university's efforts to get the fruits of its research out of the lab and onto the market.
The $14 million, 50,000-square-foot facility will be the first of its kind for UND when it becomes operational sometime in July.
There, UND scientists will mingle with businesses to produce, for example, vaccines and proteins for the drug industry.
With six months to go, the so-called Center of Excellence for Life Sciences and Advanced Technologies, or COELSAT, building, is 85 percent to 90 percent filled. There are eight listed tenants, five of them private firms from here in North Dakota and across the country.
The name reflects both COELSAT's focus on life sciences it will have the only Bio Safety Level 3 germ research lab in the region and its designation by the state as a center for commercialization.
"The whole idea behind the facility is the state wanted to get really serious about commercialization, jobs creation, new wealth," said Kevin Cooper, director of the research park that COELSAT anchors.
The jobs creation part is particularly important, said Cooper's boss, Jim Petell, because UND is churning out graduates in science and technology. If they can't find jobs here, he said, they'll leave the state.
Petell is the executive director of the UND Research Foundation, a private organization affiliated with UND. Its goal is to carry out the university's commercialization agenda.
"There's a lot of potential for dramatic impact," said Keith Lund, vice president of the Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corp.
Catch Up
The drive to bring research to market began in 2004, when UND hired Petell, a former biochemist in the private sector. In the 2003-2004 school year, while UND filed only 18 patents and trademark applications, the state's other research university, North Dakota State University, churned out 40.
Patents protect the university's research from copying by private companies, meaning these companies would have to partner with the university to exploit the research. It also means the university could create spinoff firms by licensing its research.
Today, UND has accelerated its efforts. In the 2006-2007 school year, it filed 10 patent and trademark applications and got four patents and trademarks protected. In the 2003-2004 school year, it filed only three applications and received protection for one.
To date, UND has filed 42 applications and received protection for six.
But it still lags behind its rival.
Between fiscal year 2001 and 2007, NDSU has applied for 127 and received protection for 33, not including protection of plant varieties.
The Advantage
The COELSAT could make UND more competitive. Corporate researchers drawn to UND's patents and the expertise of UND researchers will have space close to the university. And they'll get access to the secured germ research lab.
Small biotech firms need that access, but they're usually ignored by larger companies and universities that have labs, and they can't afford to build their own, Cooper said. The COELSAT fits into that niche, he said.
The lab, while it sounds scary, actually would contain nothing deadlier than the West Nile virus already present in North Dakota or the bird flu virus, he said.
Still, it will have four layers of security, two of them by swipe cards and two of them with retinal scans, he said. People without security clearance won't even be allowed to stand outside the lab, he said.
The COELSAT also will offer something called Current Good Manufacturing Practices labs. These are labs where researchers can develop ways to manufacture biotech products, and the cGMP ensures that these products are not adulterated by outside contaminants.
A cGMP lab is to biotech products what a clean room is to microchips, Petell said.
But he and Cooper also stress COELSAT's proximity to the university as an advantage as well.
Ideal Aerosmith, an East Grand Forks manufacturer of precision testing equipment, they said, is adding an office at COELSAT to be near UND engineering students. The company needs skilled technical workers, and those students are a potential source of labor, they said.
(In the past, the company has said it also desires a secured building because some of its research involving the Department of Defense is sensitive.)
It's true that while the distance from East Grand Forks to UND is not great 20 minutes at most it's still significant.
"The (Red River) is a lot wider than it actually is," Cooper said. "People just don't think that way."
Public Investment
A sure sign of the importance of the economic development angle is the amount of public money going into the facility from economic development agencies.
The state's Center of Excellence program, the purpose of which is to create and attract new businesses, has chipped in $3.5 million. Another $750,000 came from the North Dakota Development Fund.
The U.S. Economic Development Administration chipped in $1.5 million in loans.
And the Grand Forks Growth Fund, the city's economic development fund, chipped in $500,000.
The remaining money comes mostly from bank loans and bonds that rent from tenants will pay off.
PROGRESS: The new COELSAT research facility - Meet the tenants
What are the firms and organizations moving into the new COELSAT research facility at UND this July?
Here's a rundown of who they are, what they do and why they'll be there:
Bio-tech
-- Avianax:
Based in Grand Forks, this new firm will be researching antibody therapy and vaccines for West Nile virus and the bird flu virus.
Vaccines are what you take to help your body prepare to fight specific diseases. Antibody therapy is what you take after you get the disease. Antibodies don't cure the disease but they reduce its potency.
Your body naturally makes antibodies, proteins in your immune system that track down and kill viruses and bacteria. But your body can take three to four months to develop antibodies tailored to a specific virus or bacteria. Antibody therapy places the antibodies in your body immediately.
This technology is not new, but only in recent years have scientists developed the ability to create new antibodies quickly to keep up with the rapid mutation of viruses and bacteria. The mutations make the viruses and bacteria more resilient to antibodies they've been exposed to, requiring new kinds of antibodies.
UND has some patents related to this technology, and the owners of Avianax did, resulting in a natural partnership.
The economic impact, should Avianax succeed, is not limited to Grand Forks alone. The company recently purchased a farm in Tolna, N.D., to supply it with goose eggs and blood for use in testing.
-- BORDERS/ProLogic:
Sept. 11 created a need for a program to train medical professionals to be alert for signs of bioterrorism.
In response to a $2.4 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, UND created the Borders short for Biological Organic Radiologic Educational Response System program.
Instead of just training medical professionals as other universities that got similar grants, UND created an electronic training program that could go over the Web or installed on portable computers. This way, the grant has a lasting impact, especially now that the university has got patent protection for the training program.
Now, if other states or the federal government wants it, they'll have to contract with UND.
The training program has two components. One is a training course; the other is a new electronic patient chart for the Army. The chart takes the form of a handheld tablet with medical records that goes wherever the patient is. A system keeps track of who has what condition and, if there are new developments, the military can quickly contact the patient's doctors. That chart came about after a $1.3 million grant from the Department of Defense.
ProLogic, a Fairmont, W.V, company, is involved as the middleman, finding university research that has potential military applications and arranging the deal between the researchers and the soldiers.
-- Center of Infectious Disease:
The medical school formed a group to conduct research on diseases such as the plague, and an office at the COELSAT would allow access to the germ research lab.
-- NovaDigm Therapeutics:
NovaDigm is a Los Angeles company that's developing a vaccine for staph bacteria that have grown resistant to antibiotics.
One variety has become a major source of infections in hospitals.
The company also is researching vaccines for candida, a kind of yeast that infects hospital patients with compromised immune systems. NovaDigm developed the proteins for the vaccines but is seeking to work with UND.
-- Cangene Corp.:
The Winnipeg-based company deserves special mention, even though it won't have an office in Grand Forks.
Cangene is in the business of manufacturing vaccines and antibodies for clinical testing and as final products. The UND Research Foundation, which owns the COELSAT building, is working with Cangene.
Engineering
-- Alion Science and Technology/Engineered Surfaces Center:
Alion, a McLean, Va., company, is finding ways to make the gearboxes of military helicopters more resistant to heat and sand.
To do this, it's harnessing the intellectual horsepower of its own researchers and researchers from the Engineered Surfaces Center, a program of UND's School of Engineering and Mines. The center is also engaged in its own research separate from Alion.
-- Ideal Aerosmith:
This East Grand Forks success story has been developing extremely precise devices to measure the accuracy of aircraft navigation devices and missile guidance systems.
The challenge is recruiting enough engineers to keep expanding. UND's engineering students are a ready source of labor, so Ideal Aerosmith is putting a new office in the COELSAT.
The company has also said it wants to be in a secured building, which makes getting defense contracts easier.
-- Laserlith Corp.:
This new Bay Area company is working with electrical engineering faculty to develop smaller and less energy-hungry electronically-steered antenna that can be mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles and ground vehicles.
ESAs can constantly maintain alignment between two different antennas, an important advantage for rapidly moving vehicles. But traditionally, ESAs are just too big for UAVs and ground vehicles.
-- SUNRISE:
UND researchers in this university organization are working to convert canola and soybean oil into jet fuel and plastics.
There has never been a biofuel made of 100 percent crop oil that didn't have a problem at low temperatures that jets at high altitude are subject to. Biofuels freeze at a higher temperature than regular fuel.
SUNRISE is resolving this problem, and the next phase is plastics, which are normally made with petroleum. Plastics are worth a lot more than vegetable oil, so success in this endeavor would add value to North Dakota crops.
Here's a rundown of who they are, what they do and why they'll be there:
Bio-tech
-- Avianax:
Based in Grand Forks, this new firm will be researching antibody therapy and vaccines for West Nile virus and the bird flu virus.
Vaccines are what you take to help your body prepare to fight specific diseases. Antibody therapy is what you take after you get the disease. Antibodies don't cure the disease but they reduce its potency.
Your body naturally makes antibodies, proteins in your immune system that track down and kill viruses and bacteria. But your body can take three to four months to develop antibodies tailored to a specific virus or bacteria. Antibody therapy places the antibodies in your body immediately.
This technology is not new, but only in recent years have scientists developed the ability to create new antibodies quickly to keep up with the rapid mutation of viruses and bacteria. The mutations make the viruses and bacteria more resilient to antibodies they've been exposed to, requiring new kinds of antibodies.
UND has some patents related to this technology, and the owners of Avianax did, resulting in a natural partnership.
The economic impact, should Avianax succeed, is not limited to Grand Forks alone. The company recently purchased a farm in Tolna, N.D., to supply it with goose eggs and blood for use in testing.
-- BORDERS/ProLogic:
Sept. 11 created a need for a program to train medical professionals to be alert for signs of bioterrorism.
In response to a $2.4 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, UND created the Borders short for Biological Organic Radiologic Educational Response System program.
Instead of just training medical professionals as other universities that got similar grants, UND created an electronic training program that could go over the Web or installed on portable computers. This way, the grant has a lasting impact, especially now that the university has got patent protection for the training program.
Now, if other states or the federal government wants it, they'll have to contract with UND.
The training program has two components. One is a training course; the other is a new electronic patient chart for the Army. The chart takes the form of a handheld tablet with medical records that goes wherever the patient is. A system keeps track of who has what condition and, if there are new developments, the military can quickly contact the patient's doctors. That chart came about after a $1.3 million grant from the Department of Defense.
ProLogic, a Fairmont, W.V, company, is involved as the middleman, finding university research that has potential military applications and arranging the deal between the researchers and the soldiers.
-- Center of Infectious Disease:
The medical school formed a group to conduct research on diseases such as the plague, and an office at the COELSAT would allow access to the germ research lab.
-- NovaDigm Therapeutics:
NovaDigm is a Los Angeles company that's developing a vaccine for staph bacteria that have grown resistant to antibiotics.
One variety has become a major source of infections in hospitals.
The company also is researching vaccines for candida, a kind of yeast that infects hospital patients with compromised immune systems. NovaDigm developed the proteins for the vaccines but is seeking to work with UND.
-- Cangene Corp.:
The Winnipeg-based company deserves special mention, even though it won't have an office in Grand Forks.
Cangene is in the business of manufacturing vaccines and antibodies for clinical testing and as final products. The UND Research Foundation, which owns the COELSAT building, is working with Cangene.
Engineering
-- Alion Science and Technology/Engineered Surfaces Center:
Alion, a McLean, Va., company, is finding ways to make the gearboxes of military helicopters more resistant to heat and sand.
To do this, it's harnessing the intellectual horsepower of its own researchers and researchers from the Engineered Surfaces Center, a program of UND's School of Engineering and Mines. The center is also engaged in its own research separate from Alion.
-- Ideal Aerosmith:
This East Grand Forks success story has been developing extremely precise devices to measure the accuracy of aircraft navigation devices and missile guidance systems.
The challenge is recruiting enough engineers to keep expanding. UND's engineering students are a ready source of labor, so Ideal Aerosmith is putting a new office in the COELSAT.
The company has also said it wants to be in a secured building, which makes getting defense contracts easier.
-- Laserlith Corp.:
This new Bay Area company is working with electrical engineering faculty to develop smaller and less energy-hungry electronically-steered antenna that can be mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles and ground vehicles.
ESAs can constantly maintain alignment between two different antennas, an important advantage for rapidly moving vehicles. But traditionally, ESAs are just too big for UAVs and ground vehicles.
-- SUNRISE:
UND researchers in this university organization are working to convert canola and soybean oil into jet fuel and plastics.
There has never been a biofuel made of 100 percent crop oil that didn't have a problem at low temperatures that jets at high altitude are subject to. Biofuels freeze at a higher temperature than regular fuel.
SUNRISE is resolving this problem, and the next phase is plastics, which are normally made with petroleum. Plastics are worth a lot more than vegetable oil, so success in this endeavor would add value to North Dakota crops.
UND: Petell Named Associate Vice President For Intellectual Property Commercialization And Economic Development
Dr. James Petell has been named Associate Vice President for Intellectual Property Commercialization and Economic Development in the Division of Research at the University of North Dakota. The new title coincides with a new name for the unit he directs, which is now called the Office of Intellectual Property Commercialization and Economic Development.
"This is a new title for Jim, who has played a significant role as part of the Office of Vice President for Research since he came on board in June 2004. Jim was originally hired as our first director of the Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization, and as such he has done an excellent job in helping us assess our intellectual property. He has served as the leader as we've pursued patents and trademarks, and I'm pleased to say there has been a significant increase in this activity in the past three years. This has occurred at the same time that we've seen increases in our entire research enterprise, which now sees more than $100 million a year in sponsored programs," said UND President Charles Kupchella.
The name change recognizes the strong connection that this work has to economic development, not only in terms of increasing patents and trademarks but also in terms of work Petell has done to make a reality the UND's Research Enterprise and Commercialization park and the $14 million Center of Excellence in Life Sciences and Advanced Technology facility within the park, said Dr. Gary Johnson, UND interim vice president for research.
The Center of Excellence in Life Sciences and Advanced Technology, which opens this summer, will house several private companies: Avianax, NovaDigm, Laserlith, Prologic, Alion, Inc., and Ideal Aerosmith, representing four life sciences and advanced technologies clusters. Most of the companies are coming from out of state to work with UND faculty on research projects or develop relationships for student intern programs. The facility will also house about 35,000 square feet of specialized laboratories for UND students and scholars. The setup is intended to provide synergy and natural links between intellectual capital developed by UND scientists and the companies, all of which are active in the field of science and technology.
"The research enterprise at UND has grown tremendously and the climate for continued growth is bright. In recognition of the need for a continuing emphasis on commercialization of the institutions intellectual property and a focus on our university as a driver of economic development, I am pleased to note the heightened visibility we are bringing to these vital research components," said Johnson.
UND's research enterprise had a state and regional economic impact of just over $174 million in FY2007, an increase of $11 million over last year, said Johnson. The $174.17 million economic impact figure includes close to $40 million in Grand Forks County and $10 million elsewhere in North Dakota. The remainder of the economic impact is $86 million attributed directly to UND and $38 million to the five-state North Central Region.
The University's research activity in fiscal year 2007 also funded 1,649 jobs, including 728 at UND and an additional 530 jobs in Grand Forks County, 70 in North Dakota, and 321 elsewhere. All of this UND research-related activity also generated about $33 million in federal, state, and local tax revenue.
Dr. Jim Petell
Dr. Jim Petell is a proteomics expert and registered patent agent with seven U.S. and several foreign patents of his own, as well as a background in corporate and academic biochemistry research, biotech business start-ups, and planning for and protecting intellectual property rights. Petell also has experience drafting U.S. and foreign patents, negotiating licensing agreements, and directing intellectual property strategy.
Petell's 14 years in corporate research includes co-founding his own company, FemtoLink Biotechnologies; serving as manager of intellectual property & regulatory for ProfiGen; and serving as global R&D leader, among other positions, at Dow AgroServices. Petell also served as research assistant professor and director of the Colucci Memorial Liver Research Facility at Children's Hospital in Buffalo, N.Y.
Originally from Vermont and upstate New York, Petell holds the B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Iowa, the Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California at San Diego, and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, N.Y. He has more than 30 publications in referred journals and invited book chapters.
UND: Research park receives boost
The UND Research Foundation set in place Friday a solid building block for what will become the first major science facility in its new research park. The foundation plans to break ground on the $14 million Center of Excellence in Life Science and Advanced Technology later this month, thanks in part to a $1.5 million check delivered personally by a member of the Bush administration economic team.
"This is going to play an important role in what is the North Dakota success story," said Sandy Baruah, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Economic Development, about the proposed 50,000-square-foot, high-tech facility.
Baruah was joined by North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven for a ceremonial check presentation at the Hilton Garden Inn on campus. The proposed new facility will house office space for several private companies and about 35,000 square feet of specialized laboratories for UND students and scholars. The setup is intended to provide synergy and natural links between intellectual capital developed by UND scientists and the companies, all of which are active in the field of science and technology. Baruah told an audience that he is familiar with North Dakota and its focus on linking the private sector with research going on in the state's universities.
"I probably talk to Gov. Hoeven more than any other governor in the country," Baruah said.
Tremendous Milestone
Jim Petell, tech transfer officer for UND, said construction should begin on the new research and commercialization facility within 10 days on a 19-acre plot of land near the Hilton hotel. The building is intended to be the first of a number in the foundation's Research Enterprise and Commercialization Park.
The $1.5 million investment from the EDA will be added to $3.5 million
from a state Center of Excellence grant, about $750,000 from the North Dakota Development Fund, $500,000 from the city of Grand Forks and matching funds from the private sector to fund initial construction of the facility.
"This is a tremendous milestone; I can't say that enough," Petell said.
The land on which the new facility sits is part of a larger 55-acre UND Tech Park on the west side of campus. That land is owned jointly by UND and the UND Aerospace Foundation and currently holds seven other science and technology operations. Petell said about a third of the workers in the new facility will be scientists from UND working closely with their commercial partners. It will be equipped with state-of-the-art research equipment, including a BioSafety Level 3 laboratory that currently is not available in the region. The facility should be complete by next summer, he said.
Ready Tenants
Already, the facility has five tenants, representing companies in six states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, California, West Virginia and Virginia. The companies are Ideal Aerosmith, East Grand Forks; Avionics, North Dakota/South Dakota; Novadigm, California; ProLogic, Inc., West Virginia; and Alion Science and Technology, Virginia. Hoeven said that UND's ability to complete and leverage private sector partners to form a creative research venture is exactly what the state's Centers of Excellence granting program is looking for.
"I think we are ready to compete any time and any place," Hoeven said of state schools. "This is an example of that."
Goal in Reach
Gary Johnson, UND interim vice president of research, said that in 2005, the school reaffirmed its aggressive quest to increase its annual research activity to $100 million. He said the foundation's proposed new research facility and park are products of that goal. Johnson said he fully expects UND to reach the $100-million mark this year.
"As I told someone yesterday, if we don't reach it, we are within spitting distance," he said.
Federal, state, city, and University officials will gather Tuesday, Dec. 12, 1:30 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn when the UND Research Foundation breaks ground for its new $12 million, 50,000-square-foot research building. The facility, which will house the Center for Life Sciences and Advanced Technologies, will anchor the UND Research Foundation's 19.5 acre Research Enterprise and Commercialization park.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, Sen. Kent Conrad, Rep. Earl Pomeroy, Gov. John Hoeven, and President Charles Kupchella are among the speakers invited to help celebrate the beginning of a new research park, located on the UND campus at the intersection of 42nd Street N. and DeMers Ave. The research building is designed as a home for UND research ventures partnered with outside companies and corporations that want to link their financial muscle with the University's intellectual capital. The center received $3.5 million from Gov. Hoeven's Centers of Excellence for Economic Development program and $500,00 from the Gand Forks City Growth Fund.
The building and the research park will be managed by the UND Research Foundation (UNDRF), which aims to help with the commercialization of the intellectual property created across all of the colleges and schools of the University, Alfonso explains. UNDRF will also help engage the community and state to form new joint partnerships and businesses that will lead to economic growth within the community and the state of North Dakota. In a nutshell, the research foundation was established to support UND's research enterprise, said Peter Alfonso, UND vice president for research. Alfonso also serves as UNDRF president.
The park will be right on the western edge of campus. "Three things about that location make it valuable for our research park," said Jim Petell, UND director of technology transfer and commercialization, a former corporate research leader who has numerous patents to his credit, and UNDRF executive director. "First, it's next to the UND central campus; second, it complements the Center for Innovation and Skalicky Tech Incubator on the same site; and third, it shows high tech being developed into a park-like setting complete with the hotel for business partners (with high-tech, multipurpose facilities nearby)."
The research park itself is an extension of the premise behind the creation of the research foundation, given the ramped-up increase and diversity of UND intellectual property and emerging corporate partnerships and joint ventures.
"We asked ourselves how to take into the marketplace intellectual property developed at the University or in joint research relationships with corporate partners and, most importantly, keep it in North Dakota," Petell said. "This type of facility would be unique in this area - there isn't one now - and would facilitate the commercialization of intellectual property. Further, by forming companies based in North Dakota, it provides tremendous career opportunities for students to remain in North Dakota in high-paying, high-tech corporate jobs rather than go out of state."
Currently, six companies (Avianax, NovaDign, Agragen, Prologic, Alion, Inc., and Ideal Aerosmith) representing four life sciences and advanced technologies clusters are designing research and office space that meet their needs. Most of the companies are coming from out of state to work with UND faculty on research projects or develop relationships for student intern programs. One of the life sciences company, Avianax, was jointly formed with UNDRF in North Dakota earlier this year.
The research park, he added, multiplies opportunities: "You get economic development for both Grand Forks and UND, including investment in research and in the new companies and new professional jobs to go with them."
Sen. Byron Dorgan, Sen. Kent Conrad, Rep. Earl Pomeroy, Gov. John Hoeven, and President Charles Kupchella are among the speakers invited to help celebrate the beginning of a new research park, located on the UND campus at the intersection of 42nd Street N. and DeMers Ave. The research building is designed as a home for UND research ventures partnered with outside companies and corporations that want to link their financial muscle with the University's intellectual capital. The center received $3.5 million from Gov. Hoeven's Centers of Excellence for Economic Development program and $500,00 from the Gand Forks City Growth Fund.
The building and the research park will be managed by the UND Research Foundation (UNDRF), which aims to help with the commercialization of the intellectual property created across all of the colleges and schools of the University, Alfonso explains. UNDRF will also help engage the community and state to form new joint partnerships and businesses that will lead to economic growth within the community and the state of North Dakota. In a nutshell, the research foundation was established to support UND's research enterprise, said Peter Alfonso, UND vice president for research. Alfonso also serves as UNDRF president.
The park will be right on the western edge of campus. "Three things about that location make it valuable for our research park," said Jim Petell, UND director of technology transfer and commercialization, a former corporate research leader who has numerous patents to his credit, and UNDRF executive director. "First, it's next to the UND central campus; second, it complements the Center for Innovation and Skalicky Tech Incubator on the same site; and third, it shows high tech being developed into a park-like setting complete with the hotel for business partners (with high-tech, multipurpose facilities nearby)."
The research park itself is an extension of the premise behind the creation of the research foundation, given the ramped-up increase and diversity of UND intellectual property and emerging corporate partnerships and joint ventures.
"We asked ourselves how to take into the marketplace intellectual property developed at the University or in joint research relationships with corporate partners and, most importantly, keep it in North Dakota," Petell said. "This type of facility would be unique in this area - there isn't one now - and would facilitate the commercialization of intellectual property. Further, by forming companies based in North Dakota, it provides tremendous career opportunities for students to remain in North Dakota in high-paying, high-tech corporate jobs rather than go out of state."
Currently, six companies (Avianax, NovaDign, Agragen, Prologic, Alion, Inc., and Ideal Aerosmith) representing four life sciences and advanced technologies clusters are designing research and office space that meet their needs. Most of the companies are coming from out of state to work with UND faculty on research projects or develop relationships for student intern programs. One of the life sciences company, Avianax, was jointly formed with UNDRF in North Dakota earlier this year.
The research park, he added, multiplies opportunities: "You get economic development for both Grand Forks and UND, including investment in research and in the new companies and new professional jobs to go with them."
UND Research Foundation Meets for the First Time Today
The recently formed University of North Dakota Research Foundation will hold its inaugural Board of Directors meeting Friday, Dec. 9, said Dr. Peter Alfonso, UND Vice President for Research.
The UND Research Foundation will help with the commercialization of the intellectual property stemming from research created across all of the colleges and schools of the university. The Foundation will also help engage the community and state to form new joint partnerships and businesses that will lead to economic growth within the community and the state of North Dakota, Alfonso said.
The creation of the UND Research Foundation was timely and necessary, said Dr. Jim Petell, the UND Director of Technology Transfer and Commercialization, given the tremendous increase and diversity of UND intellectual property and emerging corporate partnerships and joint ventures.
"We are pleased that the charter members of the Board are recognized internationally for their expertise and leadership in the key market areas representing UND intellectual property in which the UND Research Foundation will focus initially," Alfonso said.
Board members include; Dr. John Langstaff, President and CEO of Cangene Corporation, a Winnipeg-based pharmaceutical company; David Coleal, Executive Vice President and COO of Cirrus Design, the world's leading manufacturer of general aviation aircraft headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota; John Jasper, CEO of SEI, a world-wide information technologies company; and Michael Devine, Vice President & Deputy Group Manager, of Alion, Inc., a Virginia-based company focusing on defense related advanced surface materials and vehicles.
UND ex-officio members include Charles Kupchella, Robert Gallager, James Petell as Research Foundation Executive Director, and Peter Alfonso as Research Foundation President.
New Research Park Should Maximize UND's Return on Intellectual Property
Among their most potentially lucrative ideas is a Center of Excellence for Life Sciences and Advanced Technologies (COELSAT) - already endorsed by North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven's Centers of Excellence program - that would house UND research ventures partnered with outside companies and corporations looking to link their financial muscle with the University's intellectual capital. However you cut it, though, there's more to this 50,000-square-foot project than bricks, and mortar.
"This is a tough, competitive business," said Petell, UND director of technology transfer and commercialization. A former corporate research leader who has numerous patents to his credit, Petell is also a registered patent agent for the University. That means he is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to write and file, and prosecute patent applications for third parties. Petell's boss, Alfonso, UND vice president for research, agrees that turning scientific innovations into income is a tall order. That's one key reason that he created Petell's position.
This path to profit is built on two strategic initiatives under Alfonso's tutelage: the recently formed University of North Dakota Research Foundation and the Research Enterprise and Commercialization (REAC) park.
The UND Research Foundation, which will manage the REAC park, aims to help with the commercialization of the intellectual property created across all of the colleges and schools of the University, Alfonso explains. The Foundation will also help engage the community and state to form new joint partnerships and businesses that will lead to economic growth within the community and the state of North Dakota. In a nutshell, he said, the Foundation was established "to support UND's research enterprise."
The proposed research park itself is an extension of the premise behind the research foundation, given the ramped-up increase and diversity of UND intellectual property and emerging corporate partnerships and joint ventures. And though he agrees that "not all innovations are patentable or have sufficient value," Petell knows from the corporate experience that "without a patent, without that protected intellectual property, you've got nothing, zip - you don't have a business ... That's why companies like IBM file patents, lots of them. Otherwise, they'd spend billions discovering and developing a marketable product, a molecule, a chemical, only to lose it to some copycat who could make it cheaper if it wasn't protected by patent," Petell emphasized.
"That's why we have IP (intellectual property) law, the federal patent office, and lawyers and places like this office that look out for that IP turf," he continued.
The park will be located on a 19.5-acre site at 42nd Street and Demers Avenue, right next to the Hilton Garden Inn, on the west end of the campus.
"Three things about that location make it valuable for our research park," Petell said. "First, it's close to the central campus; second, it complements the Center for Innovation and the Skalicky Tech Incubator on the same site; and third, it shows high tech being developed into a park-like setting complete with the hotel for business partners (with high-tech, multipurpose facilities nearby)."
The driving force of the research park, Alfonso and Petell emphasize, is the IP.
"We asked ourselves how to take into the marketplace intellectual property developed at the University or in joint research relationships with corporate partners, and, most importantly, keep it in North Dakota," Petell said. "This type of facility would be unique in this area - there isn't one now - and would facilitate the commercialization of IP."
"Further," he continued, "by forming companies based in North Dakota, it provides tremendous career opportunities for students to remain in North Dakota in high-paying, high-tech jobs, rather than going out of state."
The plan for COELSAT is to begin occupancy in October 2007. Currently, six companies representing four life sciences and advanced technologies clusters are designing research and office space to meet their needs. Most of the companies are coming from out of state to work with UND faculty on research projects or develop relationships for student intern programs. One of the life sciences companies, Avianax, was jointly formed with the UND Research Foundation earlier this year.
The research park, Petell observed, multiplies opportunities: "You get economic development for both Grand Forks and UND, including investment in research and in the new companies, and new professional jobs to go with them."
