This Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) project, Oregon Technology Entrepreneurship Consortium (O-TEC), consolidates a diverse collection of complementary parties seeking to stimulate new economic development by synergistically integrating the capabilities of Oregon's research universities, multi-disciplinary graduate education programs, technology transfer and commercialization efforts; the technology-oriented business community; the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI); and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Its overarching objective is to create an infrastructure of multilateral relationships capable of building a professional workforce that accelerates technology commercialization to create successful companies that serve as the engines for economic development throughout the state. The driving force and catalyst for O-TEC is the Technology Entrepreneurship Program (TEP), a five-year-old collaboration between the University of Oregon (including the Lundquist College of Business, School of Law, College of Arts and Sciences, Office of Technology Transfer) and PNNL. This program provides graduate students in business, science, and law with access to UO and PNNL technologies and to paid summer fellowships to pursue technology evaluations, market assessments, financing strategies, and plans for the launch of technology-oriented businesses. OTEC moves beyond TEP's traditional technology-push paradigm to develop market-pull strategies through: (1) early engagement of academic scientists with Oregon technology corporations via O-TEC's SpinOut/SpinIn component; (2) Proof-of-Concept Grants to promising early-stage university generated technologies requiring funding to demonstrate viability; and (3) Seed-Stage Venture Investment Grants to launch spinout companies derived from O-TEC projects found to have exceptional commercial potential. A crucial element of O-TEC is a partnership with ONAMI, which combines Oregon State University's microtechnology expertise, University of Oregon's strengths in nanoscience, Portland State University's expertise in nanostructure metrology, and PNNL's world-class research facilities and scientists. O-TEC will leverage these attributes to accelerate progress toward the state's objective of establishing a self-sustaining technology venturing system.
The benefits of the proposed Partnership include the pooling of intellectual capital residing throughout the state of Oregon with the potential to catalyze new technology-oriented businesses; positioning of the state to become a leader in collaborative economic development strategies; demonstration of an economically viable path from lab to market; capitalizing on new state tax credit legislation (SB-853) to endow O-TEC and assure its long-term viability; and building a regional and national model for collaboration between universities, industry, state government, and national research laboratories. In summary, O-TEC will attract the support necessary to institutionalize these successes and to offer an exemplary national model for collaborative economic development efforts.
Partners: Partners include the University of Oregon-Eugene (lead institution), Oregon State University (OSU), and Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI); National Laboratory: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)(a DOE research laboratory); Private Sector: Austin Capital Management, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Tektronix, Electrical Geodesics, Inc.(EGI), Olympic Venture Partners, and Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt.
