Commercializing University Research
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Several millions of dollars are spent on agricultural research every year. But why doesn’t more of that investment lead to commercialized products? It seems like there is a disconnect between the research and companies willing to bring the new ideas to market. Hunter Swisher is proving that it’s possible for even an undergrad to launch a business. He learned about his professor's phosphorus efficiency product and he licensed it to launch Phospholutions.
Swisher… “So there was some patents developed by a professor of mine at the university and as a quite a busy and pretty world renowned plant nutritionist, commercializing that technology was not front of mind for him. I had the opportunity to come in. There's a big entrepreneurial movement within Penn State coming from the top down. Lot of resources popping up for undergrads to start a business in 2016. We spun it out, licensed it from the university, and have been on a journey ever since.”
But Swisher says he understands why there aren’t more companies started around university research. It’s a lot more difficult than it looks.
Swisher… “It is a lot of work to move from the idea phase that it worked in a lab to being a commercialized product. And typically it's not corporate strength in taking something so early stage and bringing it to market like that. It's not unheard of. But I think it's something where, there's a reason why startups exist in this space.”
Swisher’s company, Phospholutions continues to offer phosphorus efficiency products to farmer customers.
