Economy & Economic Development  September 19, 2016

Analysis: Collaboratory had $194M economic impact on region

The Colorado Energy Research Collaboratory’s state investment of almost $8 million was leveraged from 2008 to 2015 to attract more than $95 million in externally sponsored research, with an associated impact on the local economy of $194 million, a new analysis shows.

The Collaboratory is a research organization made up of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, the University of Colorado Boulder and the Colorado School of Mines and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, both in in Golden.

It was founded as a clean-energy research partnership focused on leveraging science and engineering capabilities at each member institution.

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According to the analysis conducted by Brian Lewandowski, an economist at CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, the initial state investment of $7.96 million led to another $96.6 million from industry, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and other sources in support of Collaboratory research between 2008 and 2015.

The total impact constitutes a return of 24:1 on the state’s original investment, according to the report.

The group’s members work with public agencies, private enterprises and nonprofit organizations to create renewable-energy solutions and technologies; support economic growth for renewable industries; and train and educate energy researchers and workers.

Researchers have focused on fuels from cellulosic biomass; fuels from algae; development of renewable carbon-fiber materials; high-efficiency photovoltaics; and reduction of methane emissions from natural gas and other sources.

The Collaboratory’s  university-based, industry-supported structure was commended as a model for technology-transfer efforts by DOE laboratories in a 2014 Brookings Institution report, Going Local: Connecting the National Labs to their Regions for Innovation and Growth.

More information, including the full economic impact report, is at www.regionalsummit.org.

The Colorado Energy Research Collaboratory’s state investment of almost $8 million was leveraged from 2008 to 2015 to attract more than $95 million in externally sponsored research, with an associated impact on the local economy of $194 million, a new analysis shows.

The Collaboratory is a research organization made up of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, the University of Colorado Boulder and the Colorado School of Mines and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, both in in Golden.

It was founded as a clean-energy research partnership focused on leveraging science and engineering capabilities at each member institution.

According to the analysis conducted by Brian…

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