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The Utah Science, Technology and Research initiative has the governor's signature, initial funding from the Legislature and already has begun recruiting research stars.
But the biggest challenge for USTAR - a government, education and business partnership that aims to bring $4.9 billion in new research funding and more than 123,000 high-tech jobs into Utah over the next 30 years - could be winning over the more staid minds of academics.
Speaking Thursday to the MountainWest Capital Network luncheon, Jack Brittain, dean of the University of Utah's Eccles School of Business, said commercialization of research has not traditionally been a goal of university professors.
Researchers “are organized by departments with their roots in [the days of] Sir Isaac Newton," Brittain said, adding that educators typically focus more on publishing papers, articles and books about their findings than seeking ways to turn a profit.
Departmental competition also is ingrained in campus research politics, Brittain said, making it hard to get educators to collaborate and willingly share their work.
Still, the dean said, researchers at the U. and Utah State University will be USTAR's vanguard.
With that in mind, Brittain already has contacted faculty members with interest in participating in the partnership, which aims to create more than 400 new companies in Utah's technology and biotechnology sectors by 2036. Those companies eventually will contribute at least $9 billion a year in payrolls and $5 billion in new annual tax revenues, USTAR planners project.
Higher paying, tech-based jobs also will help the state regain ground when it comes to slipping salaries. USTAR proponents note that Utah's average salary in 1981 was 96 percent of the national average. Today, it is 82 percent.
To acclimate faculty to the new collaborative paradigm, Brittain said multi-disciplinary meetings are being held.
"You are now working together," the dean said he told faculty members. "Either make it happen, or you are not going to be a part of this process."
Policies that will govern implementation of the initiative await state Senate confirmation of USTAR's nine-member board and the appointment of an executive director. Lawmakers already have set aside $65 million for USTAR's operations and approved $110 million in bonds to build new research facilities.
While educators are carrying much of the initial USTAR launch load, there is no question it was the private sector - led by the likes of the Utah Life Science Association and Utah Information Technology Association, now merged into the Utah Technology Council - that pushed it through the Legislature, Brittain acknowledged.
If USTAR is to graduate from its early years of university and state funding into the envisioned, self-perpetuating, research-to-market engine, the business and investment sectors also will have to share more of the financial burden.
"This will be a long game," Brittain said. "A lot of people will have to carry the ball."