Moving Discovery from Idea to Product Development

Inventors and firms seeking to commercialize innovations in the agricultural biosciences arena face substantial obstacles. Existing markets may place barriers on the road to commercialization, while current markets or prevailing contracting arrangements may not provide appropriate incentives for product adoption. Additionally, research and development expenditures are typically large, requiring external financing.

The Center for Innovation-Based Enterprise (CIBE) was created at Ohio State University to address these and other obstacles to product commercialization in the agbiosciences. CIBE strives to promote the development and adoption of innovative solutions addressing problems in agriculture, the food industry and the environment by providing research into entrepreneurship, finance, marketing and risk management for innovation-based and start-up enterprises.

Utilizing the extensive resources of the university's Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics, CIBE supports entrepreneurs and start-up enterprises with essential economic analysis and helps research teams move their inventions from the laboratory into the marketplace.

Our Objectives

CIBE's overarching goal is to provide leadership to foster commercial development of research discoveries by Ohio State faculty and partnering firms. Specifically, CIBE can:

• Assist scientists and entrepreneurs to assess the potential of their discovery as a commercial product, process or service.
• Identify those product characteristics that are of greatest demand by consumers or business clients and help guide product development to maximize value.
• Provide market intelligence that will assist entrepreneurs to value their intellectual property as they seek to license, franchise or sell their product, process or service idea.

Our Strategy

Invention is the discovery of basic knowledge, concepts or processes that have potential value. However, the invention may be of little or no commercial value in its raw form. Innovation is the process by which basic research findings are transformed into products, processes or services desired by producers and/or consumers. Product innovation may require significant investments in research and development (R&D). In some cases, equity venture funding is required to provide sufficient R&D investment.

CIBE provides economic and market intelligence to guide product R&D, increasing the likelihood that the product will be successful. Evaluating potential markets for products/processes that are new and different is a major challenge, and traditional methods of demand analysis are inadequate for this purpose. In industries with high levels of regulation, required product testing may impose substantial direct costs and may significantly extend the length of time required to gain regulatory-agency approvals prior to marketing. Industry structure and closely developed supply-chain relationships may also pose additional barriers to entry of a new enterprise.

CIBE can make important contributions to lowering these barriers through systematic evaluation of such factors via consumer, firm and industry studies. The economic intelligence created from this research increases the probability of market success.

What We Have to Offer

CIBE is a single gateway to provide clients with essential and relevant economic insight and analysis. The Center's research team has extensive experience in the areas of agribusiness management, agricultural accounting, agricultural finance, agricultural law, agricultural marketing, agricultural policy, consumer economics, environmental and natural resource economics, environmental law, environmental policy, farm income, farm management, food economics, human resource management, international economic development, international trade, price analysis, regional and community economics, rural-urban policy, and technology assessment.

CIBE Helps Clients to:

• Identify and evaluate target markets
• Determine the size, growth rates, trends and competitiveness of markets
• Define entrance criteria into target markets
• Conduct economic feasibility studies
• Conduct industry and consumer studies
• Develop appropriate business concepts

Partnering with Us

If you have an idea but are not sure how to move it from a concept to the marketplace, the Center for Innovation-Based Enterprise is your best source for comprehensive resources and expertise to help you reach your goal. Please contact us to discuss how we can partner to take agbiosciences discoveries to the next level.

Contact Information:
Marvin T. Batte, Director
Center for Innovation-based Enterprise
The Ohio State University
103 Agricultural Administration Building
2120 Fyffe Road
Columbus, Ohio 43210
(614) 292-6406
cibe@osu.edu
http://cibe.osu.edu/