The Forum - 8/20/02
NDSU working on funding plan for possible technology incubator
A technology incubator in North Dakota State University's Research & Technology Park would go a long way toward boosting business in the region, an economic development researcher told university and business leaders Monday.
"It would provide physical proof to entrepreneurial faculty and students that they don't have to leave the state," Lou Tornatzky said.
Tornatzky, a Californian who serves as the senior fellow for the Southern Technology Council of North Carolina, spoke at a breakfast meeting in the park's new Research One building.
Tony Grindberg, executive director of the Research & Technology Park, said the university is in the early planning stages to determine how an incubator facility could be funded. He said a partnership among university, business and government interests — not unlike the partnership that created the Fargo Skills & Technology Training Center — is one possibility.
Grindberg said a spot in the park, on 19th Avenue North, has been reserved for a potential incubator facility.
An incubator would be composed of a ready-to-occupy building, supported by university staff, ready to accommodate an early-stage company. On many university campuses, Tornatzky said, university professors and graduate students are partners in businesses created by cutting-edge technology.
"An incubator can function as a magnet for early capital," he said. "Jobs created by tech incubators tend to be high-paying jobs at a low cost to the taxpayer."
Tornatzky, who recently completed a study of a dozen of the nation's most successful entrepreneurial universities, said Purdue University (West LaFayette, Ind.), Penn State (University Park, Pa.) and Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, Va.) are three role models for NDSU.
All three, he said, are rurally isolated, have president-led regional economic development strategies and combine outreach to existing companies with an emphasis on entrepreneurial programs.
"The universities that are doing this right have created a robust culture of support," Tornatzky said.
Wally Eide, director of NDSU's Institute of Business and Industry Development, said the university is already involved in business outreach. He pointed to an ongoing project with Daimler-Chrysler's GEM MotorCars plant here involving NDSU faculty and graduate students.
Eide said his office also works closely with the University of North Dakota's Center for Innovation, in UND's tech park.
An incubator on NDSU's campus, Eide said, would help his office in working with start-up businesses.
John Campbell, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Fargo Moorhead, said the metropolitan area, with its three universities, is poised for more partnerships between university and economic development leaders.
"It's about attitude and opportunity for the future," Campbell said. "Colleges today are what the railroad was 100 years ago. They represent the future in a knowledge-based economy."
NDSU president Joseph Chapman agreed that attitude is key. "The biggest challenge ahead is for us to begin thinking of ourselves as a national research university," he said. "A lot of that is just getting out and telling your story."
The communities surrounding successful university economic development efforts also tend to attract and retain the brightest students after graduation, said Tornatzky.
"A tech economy attracts smart people," he said. "If you start doing this stuff, more people are going to hang on here. Once you build a network of opportunity, people are going to stay."
Gerry Gilmour, ggilmour@forumcomm.com, (701) 241-5560
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