Cut backs in business research and development budgets is encouraging the trend to do more partnering with universities. Just as corporations have moved to such innovations as "virtual offices and manufacturing," because of technological advances in communications technologies, universities have the opportunity to offer "virtual" capabilities via their institutions. The Industrial Agricultural Products Center (IAPC) is becoming recognized as offering services under a single "umbrella" to small entrepreneurs and large multi-national companies by providing a full array of services and easier access to the University. This is a major benefit for the "customer," whether it is an entrepreneur seeking technological development assistance or a company seeking expertise or new technology.

In the future, universities and centers that have an orientation toward applied research and outreach activities will become more involved in these types of partnerships than will universities whose focus is more on basic research. Accordingly, the IAPC will continue to target its activities on transferring applied technologies and providing problem-solving skills for industry. Our success in the past is because we are accustomed to working with companies and have a dedicated professional staff in addition to faculty to work on these activities. Beyond this, we are creating a culture of outreach and service. The IAPC is ready for the opportunity.

Growth is likely because of the increasing number of external inquiries the IAPC is receiving. A larger group of industries, businesses and investors know that universities are a source of emerging technology and they are prepared to invest in those technologies. With all business decisions, confidentiality is a prerequisite. Therefore, specifics beyond the information reported below is not possible.

District 1
We are working with Precast Products, Inc. of Lincoln, Nebraska on the use of soybean oil and
soybean oil methyl esters as concrete form release agents.

District 2
We have worked with Con Agra Grain Processing on extrusions of grain products for new
product development.

District 3
Confidential: Production Specialities, Inc., Bartelsville, Oklahoma. Project for recycling chicken manure in Northeastern Nebraska in big-gas and other marketable products using new proprietary technology developed by company. Company recruited to Nebraska for this project by the IAPC. Recycling demonstration project underway at this time. Project will be capable for recycling 400 tons-a-day of chicken manure at one site.

District 4
Confidential: Pharma Chemie, Inc., Syracuse, Nebraska. Working for the last 30 months on
various proprietary over-the-counter food supplements and the synthesis of generic equivalent compounds.

Confidential: MCC Technologies, L.L.C., Louisville, Nebraska has acquired property for a facility to manufacture food-grade microcrystalline cellulose from Nebraska agricultural products for use in the food industry and as a smoothing agent and thickener in industrial and consumer products. Entire business is based upon Industrial Agricultural Products Center technology licensed to MCC.

District 5
Confidential: Peak Labs, L.L.C. was formed and purchased eleven acres of land in Beatrice,
Nebraska. A building was constructed, and the business opened in November 1997. Dumping of
creatine by Chinese manufacturers into U.S.A. market hurts the business. Entire business based
upon Industrial Agricultural Products Center technology licenses to Peak Labs.

We are working with Bruning Grain and Feed, Inc., Bruning, Nebraska on the feasibility of value-added soybean processing. A soybean processing facility was constructed and now employs eight people. In 1997 they expressed interested in having an enhanced drip-oil for center pivot irrigation systems. The "intellectual property" component of the process was licensed and UNL began receiving quarterly royalties payments in 1998. We are currently working with them on the use of soybean oil as a two-cycle engine oil and soybean oil as a concrete form release.

We are working with Wahoo Concrete in Wahoo, Nebraska on use of soybean oil and soybean methyl esters as concrete form release agents.

District 6
Confidential: Corn Card International, Inc., operating from Central City, Nebraska has a license agreement for degradable "printable-plastics" that can be used as a replacement for traditional materials used in point of sale displays, phone cards, etc. Corn Card sold its first 1,000 degradable phone cards to Congressman Bill Barrett in May 1997. Entire business based upon Industrial Agricultural Products Center technology licenses to Corn Card International. UNL received first "nominal" royalty check in 1998.

Ingersol-Dresser of Hastings, Nebraska and Fairbanks Irrigation of Wood River, Nebraska were our first cooperators on the soybean drip oil project. They continue to support our development and implementation efforts. Terry Ripp of Ravena, Nebraska and Doyle Rathman of Wood River, Nebraska have cooperated with us for eight years on the drip oil development project. They each have wells that were started on our drip oil and continue to use it.

Confidential: Biotin, L.L.C., Blue Hill, Nebraska was formed to explore the feasibility of manufacturing a water resistant starch-based loose fill packing material. The IAPC wrote a successful $50,000 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Grant for a marketing study. The study concluded the marketing of the packing material was feasible. The company is now submitting a second request to the USDAISBIR program for $250,000 to build a small-scale commercial facility. The entire business is based upon Industrial Agricultural Products Center technology.

District 7
We worked with Natural Fiber of Ogallala, Nebraska on production and processing of milkweed floss. This was a multi-year interdisciplinary effort addressing cultural practices, disease control, pod harvesting, pod drying, and floss recovery.

District 8

No information available

Out of State Technology Transfer

Confidential: Bio-Plastics of Denver, Colorado regarding helping them enhance their patented sugar based plastic material. Ultimately this resulted in a research contract in 1996 and a royalty interest in "any new improvement" to the product at the rate of 10% of the value for sales of the "new improved product." During 1997, we contacted Bio-Plastics and suggested that by using starch and other additives the functional properties could be further enhanced. At a meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska in September 1997, an agreement in principal and a future research contract was negotiated by Biby with Bio-Plastics. The new agreement gave the University a 5% royalty interest in all Bio-Plastic sales. A major U.S. company is currently evaluating the material.

Confidential: Banner Pharma-Caps, High Point, South Carolina for a new product that would help the company compete with a product world-wide in the food-capsule market. A fee for research and a royalty bonus will be paid for 2 years if the project is commercialized. The actual value of the royalty is unknown.
 

Letters and Memos that originated from others, addressed to Gerald Biby were scanned using OmniPage 7.0.  Therefore certain features, i.e. letter head and signatures are not present in the documents listed in this chronicle. Also at the type face may have been changes to make the documents more readable in HTML.   Originals or copies of documents exists for all documents presented.