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Purdue "Foundry" designed to move ideas to the marketplace

Purdue University

Purdue is putting a greater emphasis on commercialization of faculty, staff and student inventions.

To help move ideas to the marketplace more quickly, the Purdue Research Foundation created the Foundry. Officials say it’s a place to transform innovators into entrepreneurs by offering advice on legal matters, market analysis and business plans.

Greg Deason, executive director, says the move brings together all of Purdue’s resources that are available for starting new companies.

“We are keenly focused on identifying those individuals here at Purdue that have good ideas, that they think can become new companies,” he says. “We’re working with them to explore those ideas, and ultimately, with a plan to help them form a company, launch and grow jobs.”

Earlier this year, university officials cited the high number of patents from members of the campus community, but they say only a handful of licensing agreements and business startups resulted from those ideas.

Deason says the Foundry will tap into the large amount of technical expertise and human capital already at Purdue to advance great ideas.

“We have grant-writing resources to help them get funding through grant sources. One of our entrepreneurs-in-residence is focused on identifying other kinds of funding sources, whether that’s angel investment or venture capital investment. We are trying to use the Purdue alumni that are available.”

The Foundry office is in the Burton Morgan Center at Discovery Park. Deason says that puts it in closer proximity to entrepreneurship classes and experts who teach them.