Government and University TechTransfer

"Universities today need to know how to partner successfully if they are going to survive," he said. "The work between MSU and LigoCyte is exactly what we need to do in this state." MSU President Geoff Gamble

“The ultimate goal is to commercialize research for the public benefit,”

Dr. Zerhouni laid out a master plan so that rather than passively accepting the priorities of these scientists, the agency will now emphasize specific fields of study and new technology that might produce major breakthroughs.

The Montana Board of Regents approved a licensing agreement between a local company and the University of Montana in what could be the first step toward making honey bees a staple of Montana’s economy.

"You see people coming out of the engineering programs and medical technology programs and they have these ideas," Benedict said, "but they don’t know how to turn it into a profitable business." Spinning university technology into new companies could spread that wealth to every corner of the community. "We are a state with great potential that has not yet exercised that potential," Crow said in an e-mail. "The university has a responsibility to position the state to be a part of the still-emerging, rapidly evolving, perpetually innovative, technology-driven economic change."

Williams was drawn to the UA a decade ago from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, where he helped develop a technology transfer program. He raves about Tucson, where he has built a network of colleagues – all highly entrepreneurial. One favorite tip: When you’re trying to interest a company in your research, ask them to fly to you rather than the other way around. It’s less intimidating that way.

"We have vast potential in our state," she said. "We have an incredible intellectual base, an incredible research base, and now it’s time to put that to work to develop an incredible economic base."

"Everyone agrees, including people at Hopkins, that they’re not doing as much as they can and should to get technology into the marketplace," said Phillip Singerman, executive director of the Maryland Technology Development Corp.

"The universities have to help develop a scientific and technology literate society," he said. They also must produce the policy-makers and the international relations experts, he said.

America’s institutions of higher education are undergoing a tremendous transition as the image of an independent and objective Ivory Tower morphs into a structure more closely resembling the modern corporate research facility.