Innovative enterprise will help build new energy economy

Colorado State University has announced a new enterprise to help build a new energy economy in Colorado and improve quality of life for people around the globe.

The enterprise, called Cenergy, will assist University scientists and business partners more quickly bring clean and renewable energy research to the marketplace. Part of CSU's innovative Supercluster model, Cenergy is the University's third and largest Supercluster following the creation of Superclusters MicroRx for infectious disease and NeoTrex for cancer.

Green past and present

Colorado State's worldwide leadership in research into alternative energy solutions dates to the 1960s and 1970s. Now, more than 100 faculty members in all eight colleges — from Liberal Arts to Engineering — are training the new "green-collar" workforce and developing market-driven solutions to solve some of the world’s most challenging environmental problems.

Through its leadership as a green university, CSU is generating jobs, improving health and living conditions for people worldwide, and stimulating economic prosperity. CSU is home to the world’s finest faculty brain trust in the environmental sciences, the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory and Department of Atmospheric Science.

In the long run, technological achievements are insufficient if a university can't get research to market rapidly and in a sustainable manner.

Ground-breaking Supercluster model

Colorado State already has churned out successful start-ups — Envirofit International, Solix Biofuels, and AVA Solar Inc. — with the scientists acting as entrepreneurs. Cenergy, the business arm of the Clean Energy Supercluster, will streamline the process so that scientists work hand-in-hand with industry experts to commercialize the technology more rapidly, and businesses interested in licenses can more easily navigate the University.

Many research universities have "technology transfer" programs, which guide scientists through the process of patenting and other complexities encountered in delivering discoveries to the global market. Colorado State's Superclusters model is unique in its multidisciplinary structure, enabling groundbreaking research to move to market more quickly by incorporating effective business practices.

Colorado State has formed academic Superclusters research areas where the University already has demonstrated international prominence and multidisciplinary collaboration. A chief scientific officer oversees research activities of the business arm of each Supercluster, a chief operating officer focuses on forging business alliances for the results of that research, and a Supercluster technology transfer specialist seeks opportunities for patents, licenses, and start-ups. The team also seeks private equity investors for new business opportunities.