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When Apple, Microsoft or HP want to test their latest telecom innovation, they bring it to NH and, more specifically, to the University of NH InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL). Since 1988, the lab has built a reputation in Silicon Valley and in the telecommunications industry as a premier independent proving ground for networking and data communications products. Innovations like those are crucial to moving the economy forward, and colleges and universities play a key role by producing research that often lead to the next new technology and high-paying jobs. "We help companies today to deploy their innovations," says Erica Johnson, director of the UNH-IOL. She says many companies need to ensure a product's compatibility with standardized networking and data communication platforms, and that's where UNH comes in. New Hampshire hosts two research-intensive institutions-UNH and Dartmouth College-where world-class research is yielding breakthroughs in technology, launching startups and supporting entrepreneurs. Research Benefiting Businesses A former textile company, Warwick Mills has evolved into a company that engineers and manufacturers high-performance fibers used for products including body armor and a material used in crash bags for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover. The NHIRC funded a three-year project for Warwick Mills to work with a Dartmouth professor to develop medical graft scaffolds that will act as human tissue and be absorbed into the body to replace or repair damaged tissue. With partial funding from the National Science Foundation, the NHIRC also funded a project with Sky-Skan, a Nashua-based company that develops and manufactures products for planetariums. The UNH Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping helped Sky-Skan cultivate the Sky Touch Forecast, weather simulator technology that allows people to explore weather phenomena as it occurs. UNH opened its Space Science Small Satellite Test Laboratory in 2008 to test satellite components built at UNH's Space Science Center and has since attracted NASA funding. The lab is a resource for companies like BAE Systems, NH's largest manufacturing employer, which uses it to test instruments in space-like conditions. But UNH research does not only explore the vastness of space; it also explores the molecular. The UNH Center for High-Rate Nanomanufacturing opened in 2004, in collaboration with Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts Lowell, to develop tools and processes to make nanomanufacturing possible. UNH is also building a new environmental science facility, expected to be operational in 2010. It will include a large wind tunnel to test new products under various wind and water conditions and levels of turbulence. "It has significance to the construction of submarines and airplanes," says Michelle Gregoire, NH EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) program manager. It also has potential uses for homeland security, testing how an airborne dirty bomb released in an urban area would spread, she says. "No other facility in the world has the test capability of this wind tunnel. It's attracted the attention of scientists from around the world," Gregoire says. While just a sample of the research conducted at UNH, all those projects require extensive IT support. That's provided by the 12 staff members of the Research Computing Center. "We'll work with them [researchers] to offload as much IT as possible so they can focus on their research," says Patrick Messer, director of the UNH Research Computing Center. And the center also conducts research of its own. It helped UNH's housing department develop an online system for the room selection process. It is also working with the NH Department of Transportation to create a crash reporting and management system for police officers responding to accidents. The Research Computing Center also works directly with businesses. Newport Computer Services, a reseller of computer parts and equipment based in Rochester, obtained a grant to pay for half of a $100,000 project to have the center develop an automated inventory system to help the reseller determine how best to sell its products based on market conditions. "We're not just a software shop. We're engaged in design and innovation," Messer says. "It's rewarding to participate in that innovation." Other NH institutions are also finding ways to help businesses succeed. Keene State College helped form the Monadnock Biodiesel Collaborative, a public/private partnership between the City of Keene, the college and Batchelder Biodiesel Refineries in Keene. The refinery will convert waste grease from across New England into a minimum of 250,000 gallons per year of biodiesel once the facility is fully operational. Keene State College will host a fuel quality and emissions testing laboratory co-located in the facility. "We will be helping to build the economy of the community though a unique collaborative," says Emile Netzhammer, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Keene State College. (See story on page 8.) At Plymouth State University (PSU), the Small Business Institute teams MBA students with area businesses to act as consultants. Students, working with a faculty member, prepare a professional report, based on a businesses concerns and needs. Those reports have won dozens of statewide, regional and national awards. "We have a number of businesses come back to say, It's amazing,' and if they had to hire consultants, it would have cost them hundreds of thousands," says Julie Bernier, provost and vice president of academic affairs at PSU. PSU also has the Center for Rural Partnerships, which connects rural communities with research and partnerships. Among its projects is the Coos Outreach Initiative that provides seed grants for PSU faculty doing projects in the North Country. One recent undertaking included writing a development plan for an inn. And Grafton County Economic Development Corporation, PSU and other partners in the region are about to launch a Feasibility Study to determine the viability of establishing a business incubator. "If the findings of the Feasibility Study indicates we should move forward, it could have an enormous impact on the region," Bernier says. Spin Offs and Commercialization Dartmouth College in Hanover has been spinning technologies into businesses for years. Its most famous spin-off is Lebanon-based GlycoFi, a bio-tech firm that emerged from Dartmouth research in 2000. The company grew to 55 employees before being acquired by pharmaceutical giant Merck & Company for $400 million in 2006. Dartmouth's spin-off success begins at its incubator, the Dartmouth Regional Technology Center, and the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network, founded by Gregg Fairbrothers, adjunct professor of business administration at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. One of the Technology Center's success stories is Mascoma Corporation, which emerged from research at the Thayer School of Engineering and grew at the incubator. The company develops biofuels and recently moved to its own space in Lebanon, Fairbrothers says. Mascoma Corporation was among the 27 new license agreements Dartmouth College's Technology Transfer Office completed in 2007. That brought the total number of active licenses at Dartmouth to 124 and generated $2.5 million in license revenue as well as $453,311 in legal reimbursement, according to the Dartmouth College Technology Transfer Office's FY 2007 Annual Report. In addition to those, 253 non-license agreements brought $2.2 million in sponsored research to Dartmouth College, according to the report. FY 2007 also saw 23 patents issued to the Trustees of Dartmouth College and 88 applications filed. While Dartmouth has seen successful licensing and spinning off technologies, Fairbrothers says schools should not be focused on commercialization, but rather on education and research that fosters entrepreneurship. "Colleges and universities are most effective when they stay focused on what they do well," he says. UNH is relatively new to commercialization, having spun off its first company, Chaoticom, in 2001. "Research at the University of New Hampshire has entered a new era," said then-UNH President Joan Leitzel at the time the spin-off was announced. Live Wire eventually acquired Chaoticom, which produced data compression and encryption technology. UNH has since spun off other companies, including Spin Analytical and Xemed, LLC, both in Durham. "We have 14 technologies that are in that mode of potential spin-off that we believe are ready for VC opportunity and have significant potential," says Robert Dalton, director of the Office for Research Partnerships and Commercialization at UNH, the umbrella organization for the University Office for Intellectual Property Management, EPSCoR and NHIRC. And royalties from licensing are growing, tapping out at $312,000 in 2008-a 30 percent increase from the previous year, he says. The Office for Research Partnerships and Commercialization at UNH was founded in 2000 to develop and manage UNH's intellectual property portfolio, and to build partnerships resulting in commercialization and economic development. The university now has 87 technology license agreements in place, including the 2008 licensing of green chemistry technology developed at UNH's Nanostructured Polymers Research Center to Hampton Falls-based Itaconix LLC. Itaconix will use the school's process for creating environmentally-friendly polymers. Funding Innovation Nationally, the flow of research dollars is also decreasing. The most recent data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) show federal funds earmarked for research and development, facilities and equipment was $113.2 billion in FY 2008, a $3.5 billion drop from FY 2007. "In the grant world, research funding has been on the decline since 2004," says Fairbrothers. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act includes $3 billion in R&D stimulus money for the NSF, but Fairbrothers says it will take time before that money is deployed to labs. UNH announced in July it has received more than $3 million in federal stimulus money. (See additional story tomorrow.) New England has long been a hub of innovative academic research, ranking first in 2007 among the nation for per-capita research and development expenditures at colleges and universities, according to the New England Board of Higher Education. That's good news as research can yield healthy returns when it comes to economic recovery. For FY 2008, 72 contractors earned $193 million in federal R&D contract expenditures in NH, according to the Alliance for Science and Technology Research in NH. The EPSCoR Advantage "EPSCoR is a conduit for federal investment in research infrastructure in the academic institution," says Robert Dalton, who is also the NH EPSCoR state director. "These long-term investments can range from fiber optics telecommunications to high-end lab equipment and facilities." New Hampshire's EPSCoR program has secured more than $15.1 million in grants since its establishment in 2004 through 2008 without any state money, says Dalton. But the state is missing out, he says, because the lack of state-level commitment results in reduced potential federal matching funds. "It would help EPSCoR to have more seed money to move aggressively after opportunities as they come up," he says. "By many of these measures, the growth of research in UNH during the last two decades is impressive. But despite these accomplishments, we are at a critical juncture in our history, facing challenges and uncertainties in an increasingly competitive environment." Dalton says by encouraging students and faculty to develop technology and then start companies locally, the state will be able to keep companies that grow and view the university as a strategic partner. Also, students who are involved with local companies through research are more likely to stay in the state. Training an Innovative Workforce The state's community colleges offer workforce-training programs tailored to individual businesses. When the lack of machinists hampered the ability of Upper Valley manufacturers to grow, River ValleyCommunity College in Claremont explored ways to help. River Valley Community College is working with Keene State College, the Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce, and the Keene Continuing Education Department to develop the Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing to train people in the skills needed by advanced manufacturers to be housed at Keene State College. Hanover-based Hypertherm, a global manufacturer of plasma arc cutting technology, launched its own technical training institute. The company partnered with River Valley Community College so participants could earn academic certificates and college credits. As the demand for green technologies and buildings grows, the Lakes Region Community College in Laconia developed the Energy Services Technology associates degree program to focus on energy conservation and alternative energy production. The program now has 20 students, and the college received a grant from the NH Public Utilities Commission through the NH Department of Resources and Economic Development to train 250 building analysts during the next two years, says Mark Edelstein, president of Lakes Region Community College. Great Bay Community College in Portsmouth has an associates degree program for workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in collaboration with York Community College in Maine. It's a general studies degree for the 23 trades used at the shipyard. About 800 people have completed the program, says Lin Tamulonis, associate vice president of corporate and community education for Great Bay Community College. The shipyard approached the college after it realized it would be facing a wave of retiring workers. The apprenticeship program brings in 175 to 200 new workers each year, she says. Great Bay Community College also trains workers for the biotech industry at the NH Biotechnology Education and Training Center, partnering with biotech leaders including Lonza, Salient and Smith Medical. "One of the things we're good at is listening to the needs of business and industry and helping them to achieve innovation," Tamulonis says of the community college system. "The college is building the workforce to support areas where businesses and communities want to move forward."
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