Research institutions like the University of Arizona are accelerating their academic output from classrooms to the commercial sector.

Centered at UA, Tech Launch Arizona (TLA) is on a mission to get research out of the lab and into the marketplace.

Doug Hockstad, assistant vice president of TLA, said the center uses National Science Foundation Innovation Corps grants to spur real world applications. “Tech Launch Arizona takes the inventions created at the university, protects those inventions, markets them and tries to find companies to license them from the university."

This year, 16 startup licensee companies were formed. “We have a startup that is going to be commercializing the dual view endoscope. And there’s a company that’s created an avatar. It gets very accurate results on how truthful a person is being in their responses,” said Hockstead.

Other innovations span fields from biochemistry to agronomy and nanotechnology to aerospace communications. Hockstad said those who create the technology share in the royalties from profits generated.