The University of Kentucky’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) working with the Cabinet for Economic Development’s (CED) KY Innovation office and the University of Louisville is leading the development of a Commonwealth Commercialization Center (C3), a new approach to resourcing all commercialization and intellectual property needs across the Commonwealth’s public universities and colleges.

C3 is a partnership among all Kentucky’s public institutions to increase commercialization culture and capabilities across the state. C3 will be a shared resource to provide intellectual property and technology transfer services to all Kentucky universities and colleges with a goal of establishing Kentucky as a regional commercialization leader.

With $1.2 million in grant funding from KY CED, UK OTC and UofL Office of Technology Transfer will take leadership roles in hiring and training C3 staff and helping C3 through its startup phase. C3 will leverage resources and successes of their offices including commercialization education to be provided at all Kentucky institutions.

Ian McClure, OTC director, is the primary investigator on the C3 grant to UK. “Innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurial communities are all products of their culture and access to resources,” McClure said. “Successful environments have at their center research and academic institutions that embody this culture and facilitate this access. Through this partnership and state-supported initiative, we are advancing this notion and investing in the development of commercialization culture and resources around our Commonwealth’s universities and colleges. I am grateful for KY Innovation’s support, and for the partnership of all the participating public institutions and look forward to seeing the bar raised in making Kentucky a regional commercialization leader. The University of Kentucky is proud and excited to be leading the way in creating this first of its kind center in Kentucky.”

Services will be available to members of Kentucky’s institutions to identify, develop, market and protect intellectual property. Additionally, this program will foster collaboration and engagement with institutions throughout the state to form a regional innovation commercialization corridor.

“I am inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit among the faculty, staff and students at the University of Kentucky,” said Eli Capilouto, UK president. “We are committed to harnessing the spirit and further connecting the creative research and development on our campus into tangible solutions in our communities. This new mechanism allows us to share resources and knowledge with our sister institutions across the state and, in partnership, strengthen our economic development pipeline.”

The Office of Technology Commercialization is the technology transfer office for the University of Kentucky. The core mission of the OTC is to facilitate the commercialization of innovations and discoveries for the benefit of the university community, the Commonwealth of Kentucky and global society.