Green tech transfer taps collaboration

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Don Gerhart, University of Oregon

Green-aimed technology transfer researchers at Oregon State University, Portland State University and the University of Oregon are increasingly driven by collaboration.

For example:

• Crystal Clear Technologies Inc., a UO spinoff, received money from a grant from the Oregon Nanoscience and MicroTechnologies Institute. ONAMI itself is a collaboration between Oregon’s four research universities and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash.

• Perpetua Power System Technologies Inc., which specializes in energy harvesting from temperature gradients, stems from a partnership between UO’s Technology Entrepreneurship Program and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

• Oregon BEST, also known as the Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Center, contains 87 researchers from Oregon State University. The rest come from UO, PSU and the Oregon Institute of Technology.

"These partnerships have become necessary," said Don Gerhart, associate vice president of UO’s research and innovation department. “The myth of the lone researcher working late at night in a lab can still happen, but it’s an exceedingly rare event. What we have now is deep research collaboration going on between individuals in a research group, between research groups and between institutions as well.”

Brian Wall, Oregon State University’s technology transfer director, believes the greater collaboration stems from the state’s formal efforts earlier this decade to establish signature research centers.

Such arrangements as the Center for Green Materials, which teams Oregon Health & Science University with the University of Oregon, Oregon State University and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, are just starting to blossom, Wall said.

And because Oregon wants to become a sustainability leader, the centers are more often steering universities to work on energy-efficiency and green-building breakthroughs.

Other technology transfer trends include a move toward developing intellectual capital and technology through "experiential education." The strategy includes allowing students to test applications in real-life scenarios.

For instance, UO students participating in the school’s Green Product Design Network created sustainable electric car interiors as part of a project with Eugene-based Arcimoto Inc. and Beaverton-based Uliko Studio.

"It’s more important to have access to cutting-edge technology and innovation that our best and brightest students can work on and develop, rather than having a warehouse of patents sitting on the shelf," said Chuck Williams, director of the University of Oregon’s technology transfer program.

Other UO sustainability-related ventures include Voxtel Inc., which works with nanomaterials, and Intel Corp. spinout SpectraWatt Inc., which specializes in photovoltaics.

Oregon State researchers are also working to develop grid energy storage systems. The grids can store power created from virtually any energy medium. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, is exploring ways to provide tax credits to companies working on energy grids.

Oregon State, through its $1.3 million Venture Development Fund, also recently released $147,000 that will help develop a thermal energy storage system.

While Portland State has yet to spin off any sustainability companies, researchers are working feverishly to do so. At least one staffer is working on a computer program to model carbon offsets. Other researchers are exploring solar technologies.

Like spinoffs from other campuses, PSU’s work could pay off big-time.

"Many more investors are interested in sustainable technology, so there are more investors, more market awareness and, in some cases, more public incentives," said Dana Bostrom, PSU’s director of innovation and industry alliances.

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