Director's Column:

A River of Innovation

A river runs through Lafayette, Indiana. Winners of a geography bee would tell you it is the Wabash and that it separates Lafayette from West Lafayette. What I saw recently was a stream that unites the two distinctly different towns. It was a stream of energy, enthusiasm and cooperation used to convert a university's research strength into businesses, products and jobs.

Last June, I attended an interesting roundtable in West Lafayette, Indiana. A group with the unwieldy name of The University Region Economic Development Consortium, consisting of representatives of economic development offices and their university counterparts, met for two days of discussion about the promises and problems associated with the conversion of university research into economic opportunity. University towns from Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Ohio, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan, were represented.

The two-day meeting began with a tour of one of Lafayette's top success stories, long-time HBC friend and collaborator, Bioanalytical Systems. BAS has grown from a one-person, one-product, part-time research-based company to a $25 million per year, publicly traded, product- and service-based company with offices and labs in multiple cities. One of the special factors highlighted during the BAS presentation was its very close relationship with Purdue University. A Master Agreement that allows both entities access to each other's expertise in a "wall-less" environment covers this special relationship. The benefits to each were readily apparent.

One of the presenters at the roundtable was Don Gentry, Purdue's Vice Provost for Engagement. This unusual title is indicative of the level of interest Purdue's central administration has placed on engaging the university with the local community and the state. Gentry is largely responsible for the public service activity that is part of the mission of Purdue or any other state university. As Gentry phrased it, he is charged with replacing the traditional university attitude of, "this is what we have," with one of, "what do you need?"

Through the Purdue Research Foundation (the University's endowment arm), Purdue has invested heavily in economic development activities. The crown jewel of this investment is the Purdue Research Park, which consists of a business incubator, an innovation center (for graduates of the incubator), private commercialization space, and 600 acres set aside for business development. The incubator, where the meeting was held, is an impressive structure that is coupled with an impressive business mentoring activity. Lafayette has its act together for substantial and sustainable economic development.

Not every story at this meeting was so upbeat. Some of the participants talked about poorly functioning or under-funded economic development activities in their cities. Others lamented no-growth and NIMBY attitudes in the towns where they live. Where are Lawrence and the University of Kansas in this mix? From my perspective, not where we should be. As of this writing, KU has elected not to become directly involved in either university research parks or technology-based business incubators. We still function much more on the "this is what we have" level than the "what do you need?" level. Nevertheless, there are some promising signs. The Kansas Innovation Corporation has a new leader and a new name. It has become the Lawrence Regional Technology Center (LRTC), and its new president is Matthew McClorey. McClorey is energetically engaging the university and the city in an attempt to bring a true technology-based business incubator to town. So far both town and gown seem to be responding positively to this effort. If successful, the LRTC, in partnership with the city, county and the university could make the work of converting technologies, developed and matured in the HBC, into functioning, profitable businesses a great deal easier. We hope that is the case. - Charles J. Decedue