About the Superclusters

Evolution of the Supercluster Concept

September 2003 - Larry Edward Penley joins Colorado State as its 13th president. In his fall address to the university community, he highlights higher education’s potential for addressing society’s greatest challenges and the significant dependence of our economy and quality of life on higher education and its research and productivity.

January 2004 – In a speech to the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp., Penley talks about the link between university-based research and commercial products. “CSU and other research universities must take responsibility for focusing their research capability on the major global challenges,” he said. “The essential elements of economic prosperity have changed. They are linked intimately with the prosperity of the American research university – with its essential contributions to human and intellectual capital. And it is human and intellectual capital that will retain this country’s global competitiveness and the competitiveness of this region of the country.”

March 2004 – Penley leads Colorado State in its strategic planning process by assessing the university’s challenges and threats. Among the opportunities is the role of Colorado State in serving Colorado: “As a land-grant university with a rich science and technology portfolio, Colorado State is particularly well-suited to working closely with the state on economic development – attracting new business to Colorado, producing the intellectual property to stimulate new business growth, and exporting Colorado’s intellectual capital to a global market.” 

Also in March, Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz School of Public Policy Management releases a survey urging universities to align their strengths with local industry to foster regional economic development.

Summer 2004 – Recognizing the potential for enhanced technology transfer, Penley dispatches several university leaders including Senior Vice President and Provost Tony Frank and Kathleen Henry, president and chief executive officer of the Colorado State University Foundation, to examine technology transfer operations at other U.S. universities and learn from what they observe as it could apply to Colorado State.

Fall 2004 – Penley calls on business leaders to support the university in creating an Office of Economic Development. In his fall address, Penley calls on the campus to create an economic development office that will “promote, attract and retain businesses by linking our intellectual capacity with our contributions to the community and economy.” He also urges the adoption of a “sector approach” to technology transfer, with business specialists and research faculty working together in cluster areas to speed intellectual property deployment.

November 2005 – Frank names Hunt Lambert director of the university’s Center for Entrepreneurship and associate vice president of the new Office of Economic Development.

January 2006 – University leaders determine that technology transfer opportunities can be enhanced if research focuses on specific areas where Colorado State already excels. Colorado State maps the university’s expertise against regional economic growth clusters and global problems.  Penley coins the word “Supercluster” for what Colorado State will offer.

February 2007 – New Supercluster organization is announced; the university creates MicroRx, the first division of CSU Ventures and the first Supercluster, to focus on addressing the challenge of infectious disease with the intent of enabling speedier applications of university research for the benefit of the public.

August 2007 – Second Supercluster is announced, creating NeoTREX and the internal Cancer Supercluster to form a highly collaborative structure for the university’s cancer research to finding treatments and cures for cancer, and enabling these discoveries to more quickly reach the marketplace.