BATON Program
The Center’s BATON (Business Acceleration and Technology Out-licensing Network) program provides a supporting infrastructure to assist in growing sustainable North Carolina life science companies based on commercially promising technologies developed at universities and research institutions around the world.
Key partners in the BATON Program are the Biotechnology Center, university and research institute technology transfer offices, scientific inventors, providers of professional services commonly needed by young life sciences companies, and entrepreneurs interested in managing these companies.
Prequalified service providers agree to discount their services to BATON companies, and includebusiness and patent lawyers, accountants, contract research businesses, freelance grants and business plan writers, regulatory professionals, individuals who have developed similar commercial products, marketing and market research resources, website developers, etc.
Together, these stakeholders work to:
- Identify inventions with commercial potential;
- Create sustainable companies in North Carolina to capture these commercial opportunities;
- Establish a professional services support network;
- Leverage Center loan funding for crucial inception-stage business activities; and
- Identify and recruit an entrepreneur, as needed, to take each opportunity forward.
Eligibility
Eligible technologies are supported by protectable intellectual property that is unlicensed at the time of application, although a company may be formed prior to BATON participation. Each BATON candidate is evaluated on the degree to which it supports the creation of a sustainable start-up company to aggressively commercialize the cornerstone technology.
Checklist of Deliverables
During the course of its participation in the BATON program, a company will (with support of its stakeholders):
- Establish an independent North Carolina company
- Obtain an option to the asset from the university or research institute
- Identify required services; solicit and engage BATON stakeholders
- Research intellectual property, market and regulatory paths
- Triage commercial opportunities for technology
- Build consensus around an initial entry market
- Create a strategic development plan
- Establish business and technology milestones (and projected costs)
- Set near-term financing goals
- Capture the corporate vision in a business plan
