KNOWLEDGE

The Technology Commercialization Group (TCG)
creates pathways to commercialization for companies,
entrepreneurs and researchers.

TCG works with clients to solve product development and market challenges by facilitating and funding Commercialization Engagements with the university, public and private partners that comprise our 20+ member Technology Commercialization Network (TCN). Over the past 5 years, TCG has structured more than 225 Commercialization Engagements.

TCG Fiscal Year 2009 Technology Commercialization Engagements

Commercialization Solutions

TCG launched Commercialization Solutions in 2009, an expanded suite of customized, fee-based products and services to meet client needs. Commercialization Solutions span needs from Assessment to Commercialization to Capital, for early-stage and mature enterprises looking to grow through open innovation strategies.



Technology Consortia Development

As an innovation intermediary, Ben Franklin identifies opportunities to create research and development Consortia among universities, government and industrial partners to tackle technology challenges that can become the basis for the next wave of innovation.

TCG's research and development Consortia have leveraged more than $142 million for the region since 2005.


Programs and Partnerships

The PA Green Growth Partnership, and its predecessor, the Consortium for Sustainable Design and Research, creates strategic partnerships between industry, university, economic investment groups and non-profits to solidify and grow the Commonwealth's position as a national leader in the rapidly emerging green building marketplace. Ben Franklin partnered with Philadelphia University to launch the partnership in 2000, before green technology was high on the region's agenda. The partnership now includes Temple University, Villanova University, and the Pittsburgh Green Building Alliance. The partnership has successfully assisted over 120 young companies.

The Water & Environmental Technology (WET) Center, located at Temple University, is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry / University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) focused on water quality and emerging contaminants. Temple University and Ben Franklin created WET's Pennsylvania Environmental Technologies for the Pharmaceutical Industry (PETPI) program, offering technological support to the pharmaceutical industry in the Delaware Valley. PETPI is supported by PA's Department of Community and Economic Development, and designed to make Temple University a worldwide hub for research and development dealing with the green manufacture of medicines.

The Pennsylvania Advanced Textile Research and Innovation Center (PATRIC) provides leading edge expertise to test, develop and create advanced materials (primarily textile in nature) that support industrial developments and growth in a range of biological and technology applications. Philadelphia University, Drexel University and Ben Franklin created PATRIC with $1.2 Million from PA's Department of Community and Economic Development.

The Partnership for Broadband Wireless Innovations leverages the research and development reputation of Villanova's Center for Advanced Communications. Along with Widener University, Temple University's College of Engineering, and the U.S. Air Force and Navy, the partnership supports company product development. Ben Franklin helped to develop the partnership in 2004, which has now assisted more than 20 companies.

The Innovation Partnership (IPART), a BFTP statewide program, provides assistance in the preparation of SBIR/STTR federal grant proposals. BFTP has assisted with over 75 grant applications.

The Drexel/Coulter Commercialization Fund accelerates the commercialization of biomedical discoveries at Drexel University. BFTP/SEP is providing follow-on funding and support to select translational stage projects funded by the Coulter Foundation, in order to create new companies and licensing opportunities. [Press Release]

Successful corporations often possess valuable yet unprogressed intellectual property (IP) they have no plans of developing. Our Ben Franklin IP Pool partners us with Phoenix IP Ventures to accept corporate donations of selected IP assets which become the basis for new commercialization strategies.

Our Corporate Technology Scout program engages us with corporations and industry leaders. We gain a deeper understanding of their technology priorities, while they gain an early efficient view of emerging companies and technologies that can help fill their technology pipeline.

For more TCG programs and initiatives, see Ben Franklin's Networks