Incubators (no actual headline)

Photos:Submitted photos for Alien Technology, NDSU technology incubator, and mugs of Gary Weisenstein, Bruce Gjovig and Philip Boudjouk, and a shot of high-tech workers suited up and staring into microscopes. Also, Amy will shoot BSC students (a mass of kids, maybe in nursing center) for the cover and for local art for this story.

Note:There is a sidebar. BW/Gwen partnering sb, 9 inches.

Suggested headline: Business-higher ed partnerships can pay off for both parties

More private sector jobs through research

Filling worker demand through education

This summer, the deans at the University of North Dakota hopped a bus and took a three-day tour through the western part of the state.

It's the second year that Greg Weisenstein, UND vice president for academic affairs and provost, has hosted a tour for the deans. His intent is to build partnerships across the state that will give UND a feel for what the state needs and how to meet those needs.

It's one of many examples of universities and colleges in the state teaming up with the private sector. From creating a talented workforce to performing research that makes life better, partnerships between higher education, businesses and government entities can make effective matches.

"There are all kinds of ways we can leverage resources with the public and private sector," Weisenstein said. "Universities are places where a lot of research occurs, and that's translated into goods and services by the private sector. We also have an opportunity to leverage our intellectual or fiscal resources with the private sector on specific projects."

Take the university-affiliated business incubators sprinkled around the state. These incubators are places where fledgling companies can rent space with flexible contracts that allow them to grow. Several enterprises are housed in one building. Besides receiving support from the colleges and universities, the companies can mentor each other as they develop.

Among the state's university-affiliated business incubators is the Traill County Technology Center at Mayville State University. There are two incubators on campus at UND, and NDSU opened its first incubator last spring.

At some universities, research and technology parks expand beyond the incubators to include companies that already stand on their own.

The research park at NDSU is home to Phoenix International, a company that manufactures electronics for use in rugged terrain. The park also hosts Alien Technology, the company that manufactures radio frequency identification (RFID) microchips that are the size of a pepper flake.

Philip Boudjouk, NDSU's vice president for research, creative activities and technology transfer, said Alien licensed NDSU to develop the RFID technology for use in its government contracts - another partnership that brings outside dollars into the state.

Boudjouk said for NDSU alone, research expenditures total about $100 million per year. Federal research grants and contracts account for much of that money.

Research brings in that money, Boudjouk said, because the trend among businesses now is to focus more on development than research.

"What that creates is an opportunity for universities to fill in the gap and do the research," he said. "We now have to go one or two steps further than we did in the past. This adds to the cost of the research, but it does add to the value you put out."

An example is the chromate-free aerospace primer developed at NDSU. It replaces chromium in the primer with magnesium, a "very human-friendly component," Boudjouk said. The robotics at NDSU's research park allow the university to mix and test large amounts of polymer coatings, like the new primer, at one time - and that makes the research more marketable.

NDSU licensed the primer technology to Akzo Nobel, the largest coatings company in the world. The details of the licensure contract, including the amount of royalties NDSU will receive, are confidential, but Boudjourk said NDSU receives around $41 million a year in royalties from its patents.

The announcement for the primer coating deal was made last October.

"It was tremendously exciting," Boudjouk said. "It was held up as an example of how universities can work with the private sector."

Momentum for these types of partnerships is growing. No one looking at NDSU's research park for the first time would know it was a sunflower field seven years ago.

But partnerships aren't limited to research and development. Some colleges have created programs to help fill specific labor pools. The University of Mary has one such agreement with St. Alexius Medical Center for its nursing program, as well as several education partnerships across the state.

"We're all over the place," said Glenda Reemts, acting chairwoman of the university's nursing division. "We say we're a community-based curriculum. It prepares our students in all areas."

Bismarck State College provost and vice president for academic affairs Wayne Boakes said BSC has a nursing partnership with Medcenter One's college of nursing. The community college also offers five training areas in the energy industry as well as several career-tech programs. Partnerships formed with small businesses have been instrumental in the success of these programs.

Boakes said that partnerships should be formed with government entities and other colleges, as well as with the private sector to avoid duplicating work.

"We have limited resources," he said. "We need to maximize our efforts."

It could mean more experiences like bus rides as higher education builds and strengthens its partnerships with the public, the private sector and the government.

Weisenstein said it's worth it. The relationships built on last year's bus tour between communities and UND are already paying off. The university is making headway with concerns about rural healthcare, rural education and the labor pool for the petroleum industry.

"We're doing something as a result of those conversations," Weisenstein said. "I was able to tell people that we were working on a great number of things they had suggested." Double payoff