Translational Research from Academia to Industry: Following the Pathway of George Washington Carver

摘要

Translation of new sustainable technologies from academia to industry and their commercialization is less based on the technology itself and more so on cost and demonstration of both viability and significant improvements over the current practice. In this chapter, we will discuss various stumbling blocks in the area of translational science, which include substantially different requirements of funding agencies for academia and industry, reluctance of research Universities when it comes to actual technology translation, and difficulties in demonstration of both process and economic viability of new technologies via scale-up in an academic environment. The majority of this chapter is dedicated to our own experiences in pursuing the translation of ionic liquid-based technologies for biomass dissolution and the synthesis of materials from Nature's biopolymers.