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N2TEC
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N2TEC, the National Network for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization, is a National Science Foundation–Partners for Innovation Project aiming to raise the level of innovation and technology commercialization in colleges, universities, and communities across the nation. N2TEC is creating a network to pool the resources and knowledge of colleges and universities as well as public/private partners, enabling faculty and students to share resources and collaborate without regard to geographic boundaries.
The University of Southern California received the $600,000 award and raised an additional $600,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to support the build-out and testing of the various components of the project. Major project partners include the NCIIA, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Caltech, Claremont Graduate University, Cornell University, University of Pittsburgh, California State University Fresno, University of Arkansas, University of Nevada-Reno, NASA-Ames, California Technology Trade and Commerce, and the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation.
N2TEC will give partners, especially under-served schools, access to resources they could not generate on their own. Private sector partners will supply technology, resources, professional expertise, and support for the development of the network. N2TEC will offer a unique opportunity for E-Teams to form across several schools, with the support of expert mentors from anywhere in the country.
The network goes well beyond the Internet community it is creating to offer unique collaborative resources and opportunities. For example, the University of Pittsburgh is offering rapid prototyping services to faculty and students who use the N2TEC network. The USC Engineering and Technology Transfer Center is providing IP data mining software for finding technologies and testing them through specialty user groups on the Internet. CSUF Fresno is leading the effort to develop commercialization curricula that will give users the skills they need to effectively take a technology from discovery to market.
N2TEC is open to member schools of the NCIIA who will access much of the content and some of the resources at no charge. Partner-level participation and access to higher-level resources like expert services, E-Team resources, and high-end collaboration technologies will be available to partner schools that contribute to the building of N2TEC. The structure for becoming a partner and accessing these resources is in development. For more information, contact Kathleen Allen, N2TEC project director, 213-740-0659, kallen@marshall.usc.edu or visit the N2TEC site at www.n2tec.org.
