Research Commercialization Academy (BETA 0.01)

Author: J.D Harrison

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Interest: Already months behind schedule, federal regulators charged with establishing the rules to implement new online crowdfunding portals still cannot say when they will issue those guidelines. On Monday, the frustration from entrepreneurs, investors and those trying to build those financing portals was on full display at a forum in Washington.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/crowdfunding-delays-sec-silence-spark-hostility-on-capitol-hill/2013/04/08/655715d2-a090-11e2-9c03-6952ff305f35_story.html

Author: WRAL Tech Wire

Source: WRAL Tech Wire

Interest: A Duke University student team has the chance to win $50,000 in the 14th annual Duke Start-Up Challenge on April 11. A total of 13 teams will participated in the competition, which will be held in Geneen Auditoriumm at the Fuqua School of Business. The competition is open to the public. The top three teams will have the chance to give an eight-minute investor pitch before a live audience. The remaining 10 teams will give one-minute elevator pitches.

Link: http://wraltechwire.com/student-teams-vie-for-50k-in-duke-start-up-challenge-/12309518/

Author: Nathan Eddy

Source: http://www.eweek.com/

Interest: The organization announced it has selected 295 research and technology proposals from 216 American small businesses for negotiations that may lead to contract awards worth a combined $38.7 million.

Link: http://www.eweek.com/small-business/nasa-reaches-out-to-small-businesses-on-research-technology/

Author: http://blog.seattlepi.com/

Source: http://blog.seattlepi.com/

Interest: Student teams from Washington pitched their innovations at the UW Environmental Innovation Challenge yesterday afternoon. All 20 teams did a great job of pitching and demonstrating their ideas, and 5 teams came away with cash prizes.

Link: http://blog.seattlepi.com/energy/2013/04/05/22500-awarded-to-university-cleantech-innovators/

Author: João-Pierre S. Ruth

Source: Xconomy

Interest: Players from the crowdfunding and innovation community came together Thursday at the General Assembly campus in New York to announce a new accelerator called Crowdfundx (stylized as CROWDFUNDx).

Link: http://www.innovationamerica.us/index.php/innovation-daily/28731-new-accelerator-crowdfundx-kicks-off-in-ny-with-plans-to-go-global-xconomy?utm_source=innovation-daily---your-daily-newsletter-highlighting-global-innovation-news-and-trends&utm_medium=gazet

Author: .

Source: Thumbtack

Interest: Thumbtack.com, in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, has released the results from the second annual Thumbtack.com Small Business Survey. The study, drawing upon data from over 7,000 small business owners, provides new insights into state and local business environments across the nation.

Link: http://www.innovationamerica.us/index.php/innovation-daily/28716-united-states-small-business-friendliness-survey-thumbtackcom?utm_source=innovation-daily---your-daily-newsletter-highlighting-global-innovation-news-and-trends&utm_medium=gazetty&utm_campai

Author: Julie Wernau

Source: Tribune reporter

Interest: Andrea Sreshta and her business partner were in Japan in2011 when an earthquake left millions of people without power. They realized that lightweight, inflatable, solar-powered LED lights could fill the lighting needs of a population in crisis. Their Chicago-based company, LuminAID, won top honors Thursday at the third annual Clean Energy Challenge in Chicago, earning $100,000 in early stage capital in a competition that pitted 17 clean tech teams from across the Midwest against each other for

Link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/technology/chi-chicagobased-luminaid-with-clean-energy-challenge-20130404,0,35877.story

Author: .

Source: Rock Hill Herald Online

Interest: MIAMI — The University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science today announced that it has received a $5 million gift to name the new Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. Surge-Structure-Atmosphere Interaction (SUSTAIN) research facility at the school’s new state-of-the-art Marine Technology and Life Sciences Seawater Complex. The transformational gift from the Glassell Family Foundation honors the late Rosenstiel School benefactor, businessman and avid fisherman Alfred C. Glassell, Jr.

Link: http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/04/04/4746673/5-million-gift-from-glassell-family.html

Author: Chris Camillo

Source: HuffPost Business

Interest: April 5 marks the one year anniversary of the JOBS Act being signed into law by President Obama. The JOBS Act legalized equity-based crowdfunding in the U.S., which would allow ordinary Americans to invest in newly forming and established small businesses they believe in, while realizing a return on their contribution. The law gave the SEC a firm deadline for releasing its rules governing this new asset class -- yet one year later, the agency has yet to release them.

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-camillo/jobs-act-anniversary_b_2994621.html

Author: Alex Nixon

Source: Trib Total Media

Interest: Neon, a Carnegie Mellon University startup company formed last year, has received its first venture capital funding as it develops technology that helps online video producers capture more clicks.

Link: http://triblive.com/business/businessbriefs/3774461-74/company-funding-neon#axzz2Pb7cSPN8

Author: John Tozzi

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

Interest: When President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act in April 2012, supporters expected the change to unlock new capital for small businesses through crowdfunding. Regulators and consumer watchdogs predicted a bonanza for fraudsters. A year on, neither one’s materialized.

Link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-04/crowdfundings-on-hold-dot-so-is-crowdfunding-fraud

Author: Anita Campbell

Source: Small Business Trends LLC

Interest: Getting angel investment or venture capital has always been tough for entrepreneurs. One reason is that it’s simply hard to find investors willing to plunk down money on your company, unless they are family or friends. The options are especially limited for startups based outside of venture meccas such as Silicon Valley. But the legal door just opened a crack, to make it easier for investors and startups to find each other and come together — using online platforms.

Link: http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/04/sec-letters-online-venture-capital.html

Author: Stephanie Silverstein

Source: Pacific Business News

Interest: Central Pacific Bank President and CEO John C. Dean, has pledged $75,000 to the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Hawaii Shidler College of Business to create the “John Dean Challenge, a call to action for the Hawaii business community to support the university’s entrepreneurship center.

Link: http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2013/04/03/central-pacific-bank-ceo-funds.html

Author: .

Source: argusleader

Interest: South Dakota’s governor’s research centers are meeting their goals for accelerating competitive research and strengthening the state’s economy through commercialization, according to a report presented to the South Dakota Board of Regents. The centers were designed to receive state funding for the first five years of operation, after which time they are expected to be self-sustaining.

Link: http://www.argusleader.com/article/20130404/BJUPDATES/130403035/State-research-centers-showing-return-investment?nclick_check=1

Author: Caitlyn Finnegan

Source: USA TODAY

Interest: Seeking to maximize ongoing research, innovative ideas and revenue-generating opportunities, more schools are creating entrepreneur-in-residence programs -- and letting the experts do the work. With millions of dollars of research funding and teams of experts at their disposal, more universities are seeking ways to turn research breakthroughs into business opportunities. The answer for dozens of colleges comes down to a natural solution: an entrepreneur-in-residence program.

Link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/04/04/colleges-entrepreneurs-in-residence/2053679/

Author: .

Source: phys.org

Interest: Neon, the Carnegie Mellon University startup that uses cognitive neuroscience to improve online video clicks, has secured venture capital (VC) funding in a Series Seed round led by True Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. Silicon Valley-based firms Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV) and XSeed Capital, and entrepreneur Steve Blank also participated.

Link: http://phys.org/news/2013-04-carnegie-mellon-video-thumb-startup.html

Author: Carmel Doyle

Source: Silicon Republic

Interest: Bill Gates has become the latest investor to invest in Aquion Energy, a US start-up that is pioneering a new type of battery that uses sodium-ion technology. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, company yesterday announced it is working on raising a US$35m Series D financing round, with a first close on that round from new investors Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Gentry Venture Partners.

Link: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/clean-tech/item/32131-bill-gates-invests-in/

Author: .

Source: PRWEB

Interest: The National Science Foundation (NSF) has issued a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to biopharmaceutical company Selenium, Ltd. to advance the company’s effort to develop a market ready, antimicrobial spacer to be used in reverse osmosis (RO) membrane modules in water filtration systems. Selenium’s organo-selenium compounds have been successfully incorporated directly into RO spacers creating a market disrupting, low cost, “green” antimicrobial solution.

Link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10582310.htm

Author: .

Source: Market Watch

Interest: The University of California, Berkeley's Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership has conservatively estimated the size of the equity and debt based crowdfunding market to be at least $3.98B. The Program for Innovation in Entrepreneurial and Social Finance, part of the Fung Institute co-authored the study

Link: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-crowdfunding-market-size-estimate-by-fung-institute-for-engineering-leadership-at-uc-berkeley-college-of-engineering-2013-04-02

Author: Hayleigh Colombo

Source: boilerstation

Interest: The latest step in Purdue University’s crusade to make research commercialization easier: A new rule will more easily allow faculty to privately file patents if Purdue Research Foundation decides not to move forward with their ideas. President Mitch Daniels said the university on Tuesday decided to allow “automatic reconveyance” for faculty members who file patent applications for technology that the foundation deems either not patentable or without market value.

Link: http://www.jconline.com/article/20130403/NEWS0501/304030034/Purdue-faculty-can-reclaim-unused-patent-filings?nclick_check=1