Commercializing research is really hard. If Professor Smith discovers something potentially commercializable, then that's great for him. But Professor Smith isn

Commercializing research is really hard. If Professor Smith discovers something potentially commercializable, then that's great for him. But Professor Smith isn't necessarily interested in doing that, or else he might want to but doesn't have the skills, or else he might want to and does have the skills, but can't afford to take time away from all his other duties, risking putting all his other research on hold for the sake of a commercialization project which might not go anywhere. Then you've got the flipside -- some academics really want to commercialize something, but the stuff they're trying to commercialize is academically cool but not really serving a market need, so they spend years raising funds, finally get some, then spend the next few years burning through it in an ultimately-doomed attempt to get the market to buy something that it doesn't really want. (I've worked on projects like that...) These kinds of projects to ease commercialization are a good idea, though of course they're nothing new.