Hawaii has a long history of hatching new technologies out of its research and development sector. From an important building block of the internet, ALOHAnet, invented at the University of Hawaii, to software developed by a local company and used by every major telecom installer in the world to lay subsea cables, Hawaii’s R&D community has a strong record of producing globally relevant innovations.
There’s no question R&D is an integral part of the innovation industry that drives economic growth and generates the kind of high-wage, highly skilled jobs that Hawaii desperately needs.
But when we talk about Hawaii’s R&D sector, the conversation often stops at the “R” and we neglect the “D.” The distinction matters because federal research dollars can’t be used to bring an innovation to market. And if a product doesn’t go to market, there’s no impact.
“If all you have is research dollars, you get stuck. You can’t use any of this federal money to make a marketing brochure or go to a conference,” says Ian Kitajima, director of corporate development for Oceanit, a Honolulu engineering firm that has been one of the state’s top research funding recipients. “We need other funding sources to commercialize the innovations we’re hatching.”
Being able to turn research into businesses and jobs has been key for companies like Makai Ocean Engineering, a Waimanalo-based firm that developed the subsea cable software, and Referentia Systems Inc., a Honolulu software development company that specializes in cybersecurity and has spun out two companies.
Both companies were honored in January at the White House as one of 37 Tibbetts Award winners, recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration for taking research and turning it into commercial products and jobs with big economic impacts.
“You can’t rely on the ‘R’ to stay in business,” says Duke Hartman, vice president of business development for Makai. “Research is dependent on government funding, which is volatile. It’s good when it’s good, but it can evaporate in an instant. We only pick ideas where we think we have a path towards commercialization … and once it becomes commercial, that’s a business line that can continue for decades.”
In the past the options for researchers to find those key development dollars locally have been few and far between. Oceanit has spent the last few years cultivating strategic partners in the Texas oil and gas industry and elsewhere to help it bring its inventions to market.
More recently, several state government programs have emerged to help more companies cross that research-to-market threshold. The Hawaii Technology Development Corp. offers matching development funds to local companies that win federal Small Business Innovation Research grants, allowing them to pursue commercial development in tandem with their research. HTDC also will host a two-day SBIR conference in Waikiki on Sept. 18-19 featuring talks from successful SBIR grantees and investors on taking research products to market.
The governor and Legislature last session also passed new measures making it easier for the University of Hawaii to support UH-based startup companies and other commercialization initiatives that facilitate the transformation of UH research in commercially viable enterprises.
Sara Lin, formerly a journalist in New York, Los Angeles and Honolulu, is now the associate with the Hawaii Strategic Development Corp. Reach her at sara.n.lin@hawaii.gov.
