Welcome to the next Q&A in our series highlighting people from various pathways along the entrepreneurial technologist journey in Arkansas and the nation.
The Arkansas Research Alliance is a driving force in advancing research excellence and transforming high-potential university innovation into economic growth across the state.
Additionally, as the lead organization behind the new four-year, $8 million National Science Foundation E-CORE initiative in Arkansas, ARA is strengthening statewide capacity for collaboration between academic-driven research and innovation-minded industry.
Bryan J. Barnhouse is ARA president and CEO. In this Q&A, he shares goals for the project and more.
The ARA Era
Q: How do you see Arkansas Research Alliance’s work supporting high-tech startups and SBIR/STTR applicants?
A: ARA was founded as a public-private partnership to parlay university research into helping make Arkansas an attractive place for tech companies to grow, set up shop, and do business. Over the years, we have used our lens on corporate Arkansas to invest in researchers with world-class ideas.
Our services have run the gamut of ways to convert those ideas into economic development impact, including assistance with startup formation.
Sometimes, that means using our program awards for exploratory testing, developing early data to be more competitive for grants (like SBIR/STTR), or securing executives for the business team. Other times, it means connecting researchers with industries interested in an R&D relationship.
This experience has shaped a keen understanding and capacity for steering a laboratory idea into a business idea and channeling it toward the resources – both financial and technical – toward market viability.
Q: As lead organization for the four-year E-CORE grant, what are your goals for the program in the coming year—and how does collaboration with partners help drive those goals forward?
A: The National Science Foundation E-CORE grant enables the establishment of AR-NETWORK (ARKANSAS Nexus for Excellence in Technology, Workforce, Outreach, and Research Knowledge). It is a statewide capacity-building program, supported by a coalition of partners, to strengthen Arkansas’s research ecosystem.
The primary economic development focus is acting as a catalyst for converting research outputs into tangible economic benefits. This involves writing support for federal commercialization funding, supporting emerging research leaders, seeding innovation hubs, convening needs finding workshops with industry and researchers, an expanded commercialization retreat, and many other activities.
Our goal this first year is to start offering these programs, events, and services. The four-year goal is to start seeing returns in the form of new awards, commercial ventures, and jobs.
At the outset, the commercialization piece to AR-NETWORK will involve ASBTDC and Science Venture Studio. They will provide hands-on support for translating research breakthroughs into economic impact.
Their expertise and services will help drive the submittal of new SBIR/STTR, or similar, proposals and facilitate the creation of new startups or the expansion of existing businesses into new high-risk high-reward research areas.
Q: How do you support collaboration between research institutions and industry in a way that benefits researchers?
A: Science is a team sport. AR-NETWORK kind of flips the old notion of conducting science on its head. The outdated method is where a single researcher comes up with a great idea, develops it in the lab, and goes hunting for a problem in need of their solution.
Instead, we’re asking industry to feed us their problems so we can develop tailored, team-based research solutions. This is a partnership. It takes time, trust, awareness, and an inclination to get right.
AR-NETWORK’s connection with state and federal agencies and the private sector enable us to build a capacity for this exchange to take place. Because AR-NETWORK is a third-party initiator, we’re able to facilitate these discussions openly and earnestly.
Our only agenda is to promote progress. Together, we develop promising research with industry goals in mind and facilitate real-world applications.
Q: What else should researchers, industry, or ecosystem partners in Arkansas know about engaging with ARA?
A: ARA has identified seven growth opportunities, which we use to guide our investments, that draw on our state’s unique strengths and advantages. They emerge from a clear, evidence-based line-of-sight between research competencies and industry innovation drivers.
As published in our 2024 report, Enabling an Innovation-Led Future, they serve as useful tools to bridge understanding between industry and researchers.
It’s one that companies and industry executives could use to build confidence in seeking Arkansas-based university research expertise that complement their innovation strategies and sharpen their competitive edge. It’s one that researchers should use to orient and develop projects with Arkansas-based industry end-users in mind.
Arkansas is a state of collaborators and knowledge sharers. We’re a small state with limited resources, so we rely on each other’s success to raise all ships.
Through AR-NETWORK, ARA expects to see more one-on-one, problem-solving collaboration between academic-driven research and innovation-minded industry, adding to powerful culture of entrepreneurship here in the Natural State.
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Call on Us
If you are on a “lab to launch” journey to commercialize your novel innovation or are seeking capital for product development, Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center’s innovation consulting and market research staff can help!
Our Technology Team provides consulting, training, connections, and technical assistance to help you navigate non-dilutive seed fund options through America’s Seed Fund, the SBIR/STTR program. In addition, we assist you with one-on-one advice, educational opportunities, connections, and expert entrepreneurial support.