Goals of the State-funded Initiative

The Ohio Innovation Exchange (OIEx) provides a powerful, centralized web portal that makes it easier for professionals searching for industry-specific expertise and resources from Ohio universities, as well as for university faculty seeking networking and collaboration opportunities. OIEx consolidates academic resources into a single accessible portal, eliminating the need to search each university site individually.

ASPIRATIONAL GOALS

OIEx provides an efficient way for businesses, industry groups and universities to connect and collaborate, by:

  • Connecting industry and business with faculty research expertise, e.g., access to publications, grants, marketable innovations, social media content
  • Providing direct access to research faculty through email or through a team of university liaisons that provides guidance and triage of inquiries
  • Enhancing access to available research equipment/instrumentation and services from campuses and laboratories around the state
  • Fostering research partnerships; connecting intellectual property and technology licensing opportunities

FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY

After seeking input from university and industry users, the Ohio Innovation Exchange recently introduced an exciting new user experience with rich new features and functionality that offer:

  • Free, robust searching
  • Mobile-friendly experience
  • Filtered content through custom expertise tags, institution or name of faculty
  • Directories (experts, equipment)
  • Faculty research areas, publications, grants and links to social media
  • Network of faculty researchers’ collaborators across featured universities in Ohio
  • Information about equipment, technologies, instrumentation

BENEFITS FOR BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY

Increasingly, technology, medical, manufacturing and other companies are looking for research, intellectual property and technology licensing opportunities to plan and produce products or offer services. OIEx provides access to faculty expertise, grants and patents in these areas:

  • Biomedical sciences
  • Natural and physical sciences
  • Engineering
  • Technology
  • Mathematics

OIEx also offers information about advanced equipment and services that companies may not own or may lack access to. University faculty can steer businesses to a rich source of employees through student internships and capstone research projects.

BENEFITS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

OIEx is utilizing a growing collection of higher education data that can fuel internal campus reporting and benchmarking. Through customizable reports generated on grant funding, networks of research collaborations, faculty and university patents, published research and mentions of researchers’ discoveries across social media, OIEx can help seed partnerships for faculty researchers, strengthen networking ties, inform teaching and create real-life learning opportunities for students.

BENEFITS FOR THE STATE OF OHIO

OIEx’s robust data-sharing strategy, designed to showcase experts, ideas and innovations at Ohio’s colleges and universities, aligns with the efforts of state organizations and initiatives to advance Ohio’s innovation and technology economy. Understanding the breadth and depth of intellectual capital embedded in our universities can help inform broader strategic opportunities and partnerships.