The University of Nebraska Medical Center has named Agnes Lenagh as the director of strategic partnerships, the first hire for the new Office of Industry Engagement, which was launched in November. The office is meant to increase industry support and partnerships at a time when research is squeezed by reduced state and federal funding.

“UNMC has really good foundations, and when you look at different programs that we have internally, like the Infectious Disease Program, the Global Center for Health Security, UNMC has made a name for itself,” Lenagh said.

Lenagh said she wants to “work with different stakeholders across campus to build a pipeline so that we can then go to industry and say, ‘Hey, I know you have this problem. Come work with us.’ That, to me, is exciting and very attractive.”

Lenagh received her Ph.D. from UNMC and worked for about five years at UNeMed, the tech transfer organization. There, she was a kind of matchmaker, bringing university intellectual property and industry partners together.

After she worked on a contract with Streck, the Nebraska-based medtech company, the company offered her a job on its business development team. Lenagh worked there for over eight years across 14 product launches and got an inside look at the industry side of innovation.

“I learned that everything I knew was wrong,” she said. “Industry is a lot more complicated, and so is product development.”

In the Office of Industry Engagement, Lenagh sees an opportunity to build up an initiative from scratch and take a larger view of public-private partnerships than focusing on the minutiae of contracts.

Lenagh wants to get all levels of UNMC involved in conversations with industry. While some staff are concerned about industry shifting UNMC’s research priorities, Lenagh is going for an all-of-the-above approach: She said she thinks researchers can have independence while also finding ways to better serve and partner with industry.

There can be hesitation from companies, too, who either don’t know what public institutions like UNMC can offer or are wary of red tape. Lenagh hopes to break down those concerns and build trust.

“For faculty, I wish they knew how easy it is to collaborate with industry,” Lenagh said. “The need is there, and industry is not always in a hurry … for basic research, we have all the time in the world. I also wish that they understood that it’s not complicated — at the end of the day, they’re all scientists.”

Lev Gringauz is a Report for America corps member who writes about corporate innovation and workforce development for Silicon Prairie News.