Oregon’s Lab2Market (L2M) Initiative is a collaborative partnership across the state of Oregon to promote innovation for a better future.  It is a three-year, $600,000 project, funded by the NSF’s Partnerships for Innovation Program and headed by four faculty members at Portland State University: Dean Marvin Kaiser, Professor Melissa Appleyard, Professor Steve Benight, and Professor Erik Bodegom.  The goal is to deepen the commitment to commercializing novel technologies by forging networks between private sector business expertise and worldclass research at Oregon’s four primary research universities: Portland State University, Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon State University, and the University of Oregon.

At the end of three years, the plan is to have launched 12 new technologies through licensing agreements or start-up ventures.  A two-pronged approach will support this launch plan.  The first prong is an educational component whereby managerial thinking is imparted to science and engineering researchers.  Technologists from companies around the region also will be invited to participate either in person or on-line through streaming video interactions.  The first part of the educational program will encompass workshops on SBIR/STTR proposal preparation and intellectual property management.  These workshops will be followed by a short course based around business cases studies. 

The second prong of the Lab2Market Initiative focuses on a venture-mentoring program that will bring together the talent represented by the initiative’s outstanding partners.  Teams of the partners will be formed with the members being experts in entrepreneurship, venture capital, intellectual property management, economic development, as well as MBA students.  The teams will mentor the innovators behind the 12 focal technologies to help them lay the groundwork for launch.  The 12 technologies will be selected through a competitive process.  The target will be a selection of two technologies from each of the four participating universities with the remaining four technologies originating from either the universities or other organizations in the region.

The projected long-term payoff of Oregon’s Lab2Market initiative will be to foster a far-reaching community of innovators that will spur economic growth in the region and ultimately contribute to high-wage job growth in the state of Oregon.

Contact:

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Melissa M. Appleyard, Ph.D.

Ames Professor in the Management

   of Innovation and Technology

School of Business Administration

Portland State University

P.O. Box 751

Portland, OR  97207-0751

T: 503-725-9581

F: 503-725-5850

E: MelissaA@sba.pdx.edu

NSF Lab2Market Initiative: http://www.lab2market.pdx.edu/

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.