Oklahoma Innovation Institute

The second largest city in Oklahoma, Tulsa was once known as the “Oil Capital of the World,” and built on a core of early energy wealth. Today, the economy is more diverse but continues to support an engaged community of academic, business, and philanthropic leaders willing to collaboratively invest in a shared vision for the future of Tulsa as a City of Innovation.

Tulsa is the home of the University of Tulsa, Oral Roberts University, and Tulsa Community College. The state’s two largest public comprehensive research institutions, the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, each has both a satellite campus and a health sciences center located in Tulsa. Together, these institutions form Tulsa Research Partners (TRP), a research and technology consortium implemented by the Oklahoma Innovation Institute.

TRP will build and deploy a Community Technology Commercialization Concentrator (CTCC) Portal, designed to facilitate and support the transition of ideas, technologies and prototypes from the research lab into the marketplace by publishing information about research outputs on a public web portal.

Tulsa’s research community has committed to invest its expertise and resources to this initiative to highlight regional research collaborations, uncover innovations available for commercial transfer, and unlock the potential of Oklahoma’s research laboratories to industry, all coordinated and facilitated by a dedicated coordinator.

For the private sector, CTCC will accelerate access to scientific tools and resources, identify faculty who can support corporate initiatives, and match research expertise with industry needs. For the researchers, it will raise their visibility, help identify funding opportunities, track and promote research activity, and identify potential collaborators.

The current rate of technology transfer success at TRP member institutions is low. The CTCC will not only accelerate the technology transfer process, but will also, through more deliberate and targeted transfer opportunities, generate a significantly higher rate of successful projects. This will accelerate research and technology transfer by greatly enhancing connections between university and private partners.