From Research Opportunity to Research Collaboration: Helping Arizona MedTech Companies Move Faster
For a MedTech startup, the right research partner can change the trajectory of a company.
A university can provide access to expertise, equipment, testing capabilities, clinical insight and research environments that would take years — and significant capital — for an early-stage company to build on its own. Used well, those resources can help a company answer important technical questions, validate an approach, solve development challenges and move closer to commercialization.
Arizona companies have an unusual amount of this capability close at hand.
The state’s universities and research institutions represent a deep pool of scientific and technical expertise across bioscience, engineering, medicine and other fields that intersect directly with MedTech. For companies developing new medical technologies, those institutions shouldn’t be viewed simply as academic centers.
Arizona’s Universities can be part of the company’s innovation strategy.
That matters because startups rarely have unlimited time, capital or internal resources. When a company can tap into research capabilities that already exist, it may be able to move faster without trying to recreate every capability inside the business.
And the impact goes beyond any one company. Stronger connections between university research and industry can help turn research into inventions, intellectual property, new technologies, startups and broader economic activity.
That’s an important part of how Arizona can translate its research strength into a stronger MedTech ecosystem.
The Opportunity Is Real. So Is the Challenge.
If university research can be such a valuable catalyst, why don’t more companies take advantage of it?
Part of the answer is that the path isn’t always obvious.
Companies may not know where to start, which university group to approach or even what type of relationship best fits the work they need done. And when collaborations stall, the contract often gets blamed even though the underlying problems may have started much earlier.
A company may approach a university before the research question is clearly defined. The work may not be scoped tightly enough. Expectations around deliverables, budget, confidentiality or intellectual property may not be aligned.
For a startup, those delays can be particularly costly.
Better Preparation Can Lead to Better Partnerships
One of the most useful lessons from MDM2’s work on this issue is that companies can control more of the process than they may realize.
Before approaching a university, a company should be able to answer some basic questions:
What problem are we trying to solve?
What do we need the research to accomplish?
What expertise or capability are we missing?
What decision will the work help us make?
The company doesn’t need every detail figured out. But it needs enough clarity for a university to understand the opportunity, identify the right pathway and determine whether its resources are a good fit.
That preparation can reduce misunderstandings and help companies get to the right conversations sooner.
“Arizona has tremendous research expertise and capabilities, but companies don’t always know how to access them. Our goal is to make that path clearer so MedTech companies can find the right partners, ask the right questions and put those resources to work moving promising technologies forward.” — Stuart Broyles, Regional Innovation Officer, MDM2
Making More of Arizona’s Research Strength
Arizona has already invested heavily in research capabilities, talent and infrastructure. The opportunity now is to make stronger connections between those assets and the companies working to bring new medical technologies to market.
For startups, that can mean accessing capabilities they couldn’t reasonably build themselves.
For universities, it can create more opportunities to apply research and expertise to real-world challenges. And for Arizona, it can help turn research strength into commercialization, company growth and economic impact.
Sponsored research is only one part of that equation, but it can be an important bridge between university expertise and company needs.
MDM2 Is Helping Make the Path Clearer
MDM2 has been working with companies, universities, attorneys and other ecosystem partners to better understand where these collaborations break down and what companies can do to improve the process.
That work is informing new resources designed to help MedTech companies define their research needs, identify the right university pathway and approach potential partners better prepared.
The goal isn’t to create one process for every university or every project. It’s to help companies make better use of the research resources that already exist across Arizona.
Learn How to Put University Research to Work
On September 24, MDM2 will host a webinar focused on how MedTech companies can more effectively access and work with university research resources.
We’ll discuss when a university may be the right research partner, why collaborations sometimes stall, what companies should understand before getting started and how better preparation can help move a project forward.
MDM2 will also introduce its new company-focused guide to sponsored university research and practical resources companies can use as they explore potential collaborations.
Register for MDM2’s September 24 webinar and learn how your company can better tap into Arizona’s university research capabilities.
