Partnership office bridges public-private gap

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By MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star

RALEIGH, N.C. — This is what public-private partnership looks like: A business executive whose office is on North Carolina State University’s Centennial Campus recently received a shipment of wood infested with bugs.

The executive, with no entomology degree to speak of, called Centennial’s Partnership Office, anxious for help.

The office’s response: No problem. We’ve got just the bug expert on our faculty.

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Amy Lubas

Amy Lubas

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A short time later, the professor had deduced the bugs’ species and place of origin, saving the executive time and money — and a bit of stress.

Tales like that keep a public-private research campus clicking.

Two decades ago, Centennial was envisioned as a mixed-use community, a place where N.C. State faculty could conduct technology research in a first-floor lab, then take their results upstairs to a start-up business that would work to patent and market new products.

The campus hasn’t quite turned out that way, thanks to tougher-than-expected rules on mixed buildings. Now, all but one of Centennial’s buildings are either all-public or all-private.

Given that segregation, how does the university ensure researchers and business executives are crossing paths to share ideas?

Hello, Partnership Office.

“Once a company is here, we work with them,” said Amy Lubas, Centennial partnership developer. “You have to make that commitment.”

Step No. 1 in developing a public-private campus is picking the right people, she said.

On the public side, Centennial seeks research-intensive university programs to occupy its facilities. The entire College of Textiles is on Centennial — about a mile from N.C. State’s main campus — and the College of Engineering is following. Other science, medical and mathematics faculty work on Centennial as well.

The reason: Science research generates big bucks and also produces technology that’s attractive to businesses.

Such an arrangement hasn’t gone unnoticed at N.C. State, where, Lubas acknowledged, departments that don’t draw in as much grant money — English and foreign languages, for example — are left without a home on Centennial.

“You won’t see an English professor here,” she said. “It’s self-selecting, and that’s unfortunate.”

On the private side, Centennial is careful whom it recruits to campus.

Lubas and her staff meet with potential businesses to find out what they do, why they want to be on campus and, most importantly, how they’d seek to benefit the university.

Companies that don’t show enough interest in working with N.C. State are turned away, she said. So are companies that don’t have sufficient support of university faculty and deans.

Once a company is approved, its employees are expected to strike up relationships with faculty, and vice versa, using the Partnership Office as a go-between.

The Iams Pet Imaging Center, for instance, agreed to grant N.C. State veterinary faculty access to a $1.5 million MRI machine for animals.

On the flip side, a science department recently allowed a start-up business to use its pricey DNA sequencer, according to Ashley Hudson, manager of Centennial’s Technology Incubator, which houses infant companies.

Lubas’ office also sets up community events to bring the campus together: lectures, lunches and even fitness events, like the recent Focus on Fitness 2007 that brought public and private campus tenants together for an afternoon of running, fishing, canoeing and golfing.

Private company employees are treated like university staff, with access to N.C. State libraries, recreational facilities and sports events.

The campus itself is arranged with unity in mind. Buildings face inward, with parking structures on the outskirts.

All of that clearly has proved enticing: Centennial is home to some 70 private and government partners and won’t have space for more until the next phase of construction is complete.

Still, Centennial leaders say there’s more to be done to give the campus a true community feel. Upscale restaurants and retail, like bookstores or dry cleaners, are planned, as are a library, biking trail, additional housing and an 18-hole golf course.

As construction continues, Lubas hopes for more gathering spots — parks and courtyards where employees can meet on the fly to share ideas.

It’s a design Centennial’s founders would be proud of, she said.

“It’s just a different level of interaction we have here.”

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.