Dear Colleagues,
Happy New Year!
As we embark on this new year, I want to thank you for your innovation productivity, engagement, and support throughout a trying and complicated 2020. While we may not have engaged in typical face-to-face interactions, we were able to still forge ahead and continue to work collaboratively with our customers to pursue business development and sponsored research opportunities, and advance various technologies in our portfolio towards commercial products or services. With this year already in full swing, I want to make sure you are aware of the multiple resources CURF has available to assist you with your research initiatives.
Business Development Support
Chase Kasper, CURF Director of Business Development, and I stand at the ready to provide training/education and outreach support to research faculty interested in pursuing industry-sponsored research. Our support provides resources to assist research groups with marketing their areas of scientific expertise, laboratory resources and capabilities, and activities to advance research portfolio technologies toward commercialization. Examples of our support services include, but are not limited to:
- Dissemination of marketing materials highlighting research-specific resources and capabilities to prospective industry sponsors
- Coordination and participation in virtual onsite/offsite meetings with prospective industry partners
- Access to industry "open innovation" webinars designed to introduce the Clemson University research enterprise to technology-specific companies and sponsored research opportunities (e.g. INSPIRE, University – Industry Demonstration Partnership Project (UIDP), HALO)
Market Research & Patent Search Resources
CURF also has subscription access to various databases and repositories that provide information on company profiles. These industry and market research reports can assist you with your efforts to engage specific companies for sponsored research and provide information to address innovation and commercialization requirements in a particular grant proposal. Requests for assistance and access to this information are initiated via the CURF Support Intake Form located here. When CURF receives a technology disclosure, and the technology progresses to the Opportunity Assessment phase of our Technology Transfer process, CURF utilizes these same informational resources to evaluate its commercial viability.
I would also like to take a moment to remind everyone that Clemson University Libraries provides tutorials and access to online databases for searching patents and patent applications free of charge to you here. In addition, CURF also has paid subscriptions to a suite of proprietary patent analytics databases to assist with complex patent prior art searches and competitive patent landscape analyses. These resources a vital part of our due diligence to technologies that are disclosed to CURF. If you need additional assistance beyond the support provided by the Clemson Libraries' extensive resources and require a more sophisticated and higher level of patent analytics assistance, our office is available to assist on a case-by-case basis via request through our Inquiry Intake Form here.
Throughout the year, we will continue to expand and communicate to you the support tools and resources to which CURF has access. Our goal is that this will help you to maximize opportunities to pursue industry-sponsored research and augment our marketing and commercialization efforts to advance your portfolio technologies to the marketplace.
XLerator Network Research Support
The XLerator Network, led by XLerateHealth, LLC, was born out of a partnership with the University of Kentucky and 24 other academic institutions. Nicknamed the "Accelerator Hub," its primary goal is to provide training and educational resources to advance life science discoveries and technologies out of the lab and into the market. The program also focused on increasing Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding to the Southeast IDeA States region that includes six states (KY, WV, SC, AR, MS, LA, plus Puerto Rico).
Last year, the XLerator Network began a new “virtual” program to provide a platform to access life science technology commercialization related training/education resource programs assistance to academic spin-offs and faculty/graduate student researcher entrepreneurs interested in advancing their technologies through the creation of a startup. This program provides one-on-one SBIR strategy support and assists researchers and academic spin-offs with aligning their product development strategies with SBIR opportunities at various institutes within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as other SBIR sources. In addition, the 1:1 support program helps entrepreneurs better define a path to market, solidify potential business and revenue models, and connect to relevant SBIR program directors, potential commercialization partners, and advisors.
Since its inception, two cohorts have already been able to participate in this program. The XLerator Network is currently selecting candidates for the next cohort, which would start in the coming weeks. For more information and to apply for this program, click here. We also encourage you to sign-up for the XLerator Network Newsletter here.
Thank you again for your hard work and dedication to creating and driving innovation at Clemson University. We look forward to providing continued support to your research activities this year.
Best Regards,
-Chris
