State higher education leaders pick UT to unveil innovation recommendations

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UT President Lloyd Jacobs will welcome Jim Petro, Ohio’s chancellor of higher education, and Vinny Gupta, a member of the Ohio Board of Regents and chair of the Ohio Commercialization Task Force, to the University to discuss the task force’s recommendations for the best ways to link higher education with economic success for the state.

The presentation — the first of what will be a tour of universities across the state by Petro and Gupta — will take place Wednesday, Aug. 22, from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Doermann Theater, located on the third floor of University Hall.

Petro, Jacobs and Gupta will speak to the important role higher education has in fostering innovation and commercialization among researchers and the ways the students graduating from Ohio’s public colleges and universities can maximize their ability to seamlessly enter the global economy.

Following more than eight months of research that included 10 statewide public forums, the task force of 34 members made up of individuals representing business and industry, higher education, government, venture capitalism and nonprofit organizations submitted a list of eight recommendations to Ohio Gov. John Kasich and legislative leaders:

• Remove barriers within and among Ohio universities and colleges that restrict entrepreneurial activities and technology commercialization;

• Build statewide and regional ecosystems that support Ohio’s technology commercialization pipeline;

• Promote higher education, industry, government and community collaboration in support of statewide and regional economic development;

• Nurture an environment and promote changes that support, promote and reward entrepreneurial activity within Ohio’s Higher Education Information System; 


• Facilitate higher education and industry research collaborations to more efficiently and effectively utilize the Ohio Higher Education Information System resources to support and attract industry to the state;

• Develop initiatives that provide the capital resources necessary to support the Innovation Continuum and promote the growth of new industry;

• Develop a Work-Force Commercialization Continuum — in conjunction with the Governor’s Office of Work-Force Transformation — that identifies current and future requisite jobs skills and proficiency; and

• Identify, apply and track key metrics to measure Ohio’s progress related to technology commercialization and job creation.

The presentation will include a question-and-answer session and is open to the public.

University faculty, staff and students are encouraged to attend or view a live webcast at video.utoledo.edu.