The Path Toward Commercialization

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The challenges of global energy access and climate change are closely intertwined, enormous in scale and complexity, and increasingly urgent. While there are many different opinions and approaches as to how to tackle these issues, there is widespread agreement on one thing: Innovation is critical.

Research universities and labs around the world are important engines of innovation that play a vital role in business development: In the U.S. alone, they generated almost half a million inventions, launched over 15,000 startups, and contributed up to $1.7 trillion to gross industrial output from 1996 to 2017. Researchers, funders and other stakeholders naturally hope their research will have real-world impact, and commercialization is one path for doing so. Indeed, the successful commercialization of products italy whatsapp number data or services is a convincing indicator that the research has an impact. Though the commercialization of research can lead to technology advancements and business model innovations across sectors, the energy sector presents unique opportunities, given the growing global focus on boosting renewable electricity access to address the climate crisis.



Supporting the Commercialization of Research for LMIC Business
At large institutions such as the University of Michigan, where our organization, the William Davidson Institute (WDI) is affiliated, there are many resources to support the commercialization of research. Examples include technology transfer offices to provide intellectual property expertise, mentors-in-residence to provide sector and business expertise, law school clinics to provide legal support to entrepreneurial ventures led by students and others, pitch competitions to provide training and visibility, grants and prizes to provide startup funding, lab space for prototyping, and more. Such resources are invaluable for pre- and early stage commercialization efforts, and many of them are available at no or low cost to researchers – often including both faculty and students.