"Part of being part of the USTAR project is that people have to be interested in commercializing, and they have to be able to basically talk, in a lucid way, about what the markets are and what they may be able to do. That's not typical of a faculty member," he said, noting that a lot of research is aimed at being published rather than commercialized.

"I love it when we're talking to somebody and the faculty member can tell me the potential market size of what they're working on. That is actually rare. I have met some people in this recruiting process that can say, 'There's a $12 billion market out there, and we think we can have 20 percent of it.' Those are the kind of people you really want to be recruited for this initiative," Brittain said.

He said USTAR already has provided benefits, including a focus on commercialization of research results that did not exist previously.

The first companies resulting from USTAR are expected to be formed in four years, although Brittain wants to accelerate that. Still, he cautioned that USTAR is a long-term initiative with long-term results.

"This is going to be a long game," he said. "Many of you are going to have to carry the ball. ... We need the investment community and business community to be very key players with us in this effort."

Utah is among 33 states with university-based economic development initiatives — "There's a little competition out there," Brittain said — but he stressed that USTAR must "keep our eye on the ball here and (be) really focused on line-of-sight commercialization."

"It is an economic development initiative. It works by pumping up, priming the research engine and turning those technologies into commercial enterprises," he said. "Everything we do with USTAR should be absolutely focused on that."

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E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com