The UNH John Olson Advanced Manufacturing Center (Courtesy of UNH)
When the University of NH in Durham announced funding for the John Olson Advanced Manufacturing Center in the spring of 2016, the university seemed poised to become a hub for innovation with private-sector partners.
A $5.3 million donation by NH-based Whelen Engineering in honor of retiring president John Olson triggered expectations that UNH would become a major commercial innovator in high-precision machining, light materials and flexible electronics, just as Dartmouth College in Hanover is known for spinning off biotech and health
science startups.
News of the Olson Center was followed by an announcement in 2018 of a concept called The Edge—a plan by university officials to convert 60 acres of land on the west end of the campus into a live-work-play destination that would include manufacturing, research, housing, dining and recreation facilities, perhaps even a hotel.
Then, with both projects barely off the drawing board, COVID-19 struck and progress was incremental for three years. The Olson Center went into a development phase, adapting the space in the former Goss International Building just off campus, while outfitting and staffing the operation. The Edge was put on hold.
Today, the Olson center is bursting at the seams and The Edge is back on track. It was officially reintroduced by then-president James W. Dean Jr. in his 2023 state of the university address.
The first major tenants are the Olson Center, which is expected to expand there, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which plans to build a new Center of Excellence for Operational Ocean and Great Lakes Mapping using part of a $10 million grant.
The project is moving from plans on paper to shovels in the ground. Requests for proposals were issued earlier this year, with the university announcing initial contracts in early September.
The point person for The Edge is Marian McCord, senior vice provost for research, economic engagement and outreach. She says the response to the request for proposals was encouraging and confirmed the university’s belief in the project’s potential, especially for attracting enterprises that want to co-locate or be near the university.
“There’s been a lot of growth over the past few years in demand for co-location,” she says. “It’s a really great time for us to be moving The Edge forward to address the gap in space we have at UNH. We have just completed the first year of planning and we anticipate that we will continue that process for another six months to a year. We have funding in hand for the first building for NOAA that was announced last year.”
The interior of the Olson Center (Courtesy of UNH)
Interest in Co-locating
For evidence of industry interest in locating at or adjacent to the university, look no further than the success of the Olson Center.
John Roth, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the center, was hired in 2021 to launch what he called “the industrial side of the center.”
“Before that it was acquiring equipment and getting expertise. Finally we said, ‘Everything is there, let’s open the doors to industry.’ All of the growth we’ve seen has been since 2021, and it’s a lot of growth. We went from three to five people in here to where now it’s 250.”
The center is loaded with equipment that companies would find too expensive to purchase on their but can use (for an hourly fee) at the Olson Center. Companies or entrepreneurs that partner with the center gain access to equipment, hard-to-find high-bay space, student interns and the research and innovation capabilities of the university.
Some have decided to move operations within the walls of the center, like SPEE3D, an Australian manufacturer of 3D printers that in June announced the Olson Center would house its first U.S. location.
“We work with 80 to 100 companies a month,” says Roth. “Most of those are not on-site but we have a few. Some will be in here for two days and gone, and others will still be here 10 years from now.”
A Broader Development
There are now six companies housed in the center. Once moved in, SPEE3D will join others like Airtho Cleanroom Products; Exail, which produces unmanned watercraft for ocean exploration; and iXblue, which develops navigation technology.
The activity at the center and its statewide impact hint at the potential for broader development at The Edge in the years ahead. “We are packed to the gills, so The Edge is our expansion that will bring us up to 10 times the size we are now,” says Roth.
McCord hopes to have the Olson Center operating out of a new building on The Edge property within three years, and possibly sooner. The NOAA center should be up and running in that time frame as well. The buildout of the entire project, to include research and manufacturing space, housing, dining, recreation and other amenities, is expected to take 15 to 20 years.
“We see this as a massive economic driver for the state,” says McCord. “Additionally, we see a lot of benefits for UNH—increasing our industry-sponsored research portfolio, internships and jobs for our students, while providing housing for the folks who will be working in this new development as well as for graduate students.”
New Sense of Urgency
“We’re actually behind in the game,” says McCord. “There are more than 100 university research and innovation hubs across the country and Umass Lowell is developing theirs. There’s Centennial Campus at North Carolina; that’s where I came from.” One of the best known is the Research Triangle Park, aka The Triangle in North Carolina, the largest in the country.
Marc Eichenberger, the chief business development and innovation executive at UNH, was hired five years ago to lead corporate engagement, having worked years in the private sector as a high-end business consultant. He sees the promise of the 60 acres now awaiting development on the edge of the UNH campus as going beyond what most innovation hubs offer today.
“When I think of The Triangle I think of a big area with a bunch of companies. We want to be much more integrated,” he says. “For example, we have a wonderful hospitality program and a brewer program. So, I think a brewpub should come to campus and be part of The Edge, but not only as a business but to have the students work there. Students would design and make beer in the brewer program. And in hospitality program students would be working with the restaurant side of it. That’s the kind of integration we’re thinking about.”
Students working in the Olsen Center (Courtesy of UNH)
Promoting Culture Change
Bringing that vision to reality and realizing the full potential of corporate and academic partnerships will take more than new buildings and equipment. Over the course of the next 10 to 15 years, the physical development of The Edge will likely occur alongside some
cultural change.
“The most difficult thing at UNH when I came here, and it’s still a problem, we don’t have that commercialization mentality yet. It’s building and that is one of our ambitions,” says Eichenberger. “The reason you don’t see many startups [coming out of UNH] is the mentality is not there yet,” he says. “It’s one thing we are ever so slowly working on … Changing culture is slow, and when you have 20 other points of focus it’s even more difficult.” While such change may be difficult, it is necessary if The Edge is to realize the university’s vision to “bring new technologies and products from idea to marketplace, generating economic value and
job creation.”
Current Issue - December 2024