From biofuels to pharmaceuticals, Sacramento-area inventors have created scores of promising scientific breakthroughs — many of them in the well-funded laboratories of the University of California, Davis. Now, UC Davis is laboring to convert its massive portfolio of scientific research into products that could help transform the Sacramento economy. The university’s commitment to commercialization has taken on new urgency as the region tries to claw its way out of the recession. UC officials say they’re trying to become a force for rapid-fire economic development in a region known for moving cautiously. Both the university and the region have “a reputation of not being too open to risk, and we have to change that,” says new UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who holds 16 engineering patents. She’s appointed a committee to study why the university has not been more successful at tech transfer.<\/p>\n
Nobody expects UC Davis to duplicate the success of Stanford University, which perfected the art of tech transfer and helped build Silicon Valley. But business leaders say UC Davis has the ability to do much more than it has so far. “There is significant opportunity to increase the number of companies coming out of campus,” says Meg Arnold, a former UC Davis TTO official who now runs the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance. For example, the university’s science research budget hit $643 million in 2008 — 16th largest in the nation, according to the National Science Foundation. However, Davis has spawned just two dozen tech companies since 2003 — about one-third as many as UC San Diego. The Davis campus didn’t open a TTO until 1999, and the culture has changed slowly. “A significant amount of the entrepreneurial activity has to come from UC Davis,” says Oleg Kaganovich, a partner in the Sacramento office of DFJ Frontier venture capital. “If that doesn’t happen, we will never grow significantly beyond where we are now.”<\/p>\n
David McGee, a former biotech executive who runs UC Davis’ TTO, InnovationAccess, says red tape is being slashed at every turn. Licensing contracts, which used to run 46 pages, have been cut in half. “We have shown we can start up companies,” says McGee, who has run the program since 2004. One reason for optimism is green technology. VCs have fallen in love with the industry, and green companies are clustering around Sacramento to be near the lawmakers and regulators in charge of California’s war on global warming. Green tech is a UC Davis strength; the campus operates research centers devoted to such fields as biofuels and wind power. “We’re getting a lot more interest from investors and entrepreneurs,” says Andrew Hargadon, director of the university’s Center for Entrepreneurship. “People are starting to want what UC Davis has always been producing.”<\/p>\n