CSU Ventures inks tech-transfer deal

The Innovation Center of the Rockies and CSU Ventures announced Tuesday they have entered into a partnership to speed up the creation of new businesses based on research by Colorado State University faculty.

“Our partnership with CSU Ventures will match top faculty and graduate researchers with our network of more than 1,000 mentors and advisors, one of the largest entrepreneurial support systems in the country,” ICR Executive Director Tim Bour said in a press release.

Bour described the deal as a “major milestone” in advancing ICR’s mission.

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Founded in 2005, the Innovation Center of the Rockies, based in Boulder, boasts a “highly specialized” team of mentors and advisers who help innovators bring their promising technologies to market. It had been known as the Boulder Innovation Center until a name change in March.

Under the deal announced Tuesday, the ICR will work with CSU Ventures staff to commercialize intellectual properties holding the most promise in the bioscience, clean-tech, engineering, aerospace and IT/software arenas.

ICR has similar arrangements in place with the University of Colorado and the Colorado School of Mines. It said that it will now expand its advisor network in Northern Colorado, within CSU’s areas of expertise in agriculture, veterinary sciences, water and clean-tech.

CSU Ventures President Todd Headley said the partnership is part of a wider trend in which academic and business community resources are pooled to the greater good of both.

“The continuing build-out of Colorado’s entrepreneurial ecosystem of university research, industry leadership and venture investment is a big win for everyone,” he said.

CSU Ventures manages all technology-transfer operations at CSU, including research in cancer, infectious diseases and clean energy.