by Dwain Hebda
If there’s one constant in the professional saga of energy entrepreneur Douglas Hutchings, it’s mastering the art of spanning distance. It’s a long way, after all, from Dover, England, where he was born to Mena, Arkansas, where he grew up from the age of seven. It’s a similarly long haul from the family lumber business to Picasolar, Inc., the solar energy tech startup Hutchings co-founded in Fayetteville.
But his latest venture – director of the nonprofit Arkansas Research Alliance’s ARA Academy of Scholars & Fellows, effective July 1 – promises to stretch the boundaries of science and business in Arkansas past what even the self-described eternal optimist can currently imagine.
“I’m very passionate about science-based entrepreneurship,” Hutchings says. “One of the things that gets me excited about science-based entrepreneurship is, I think the big successes in the future aren’t necessarily going to be tied to the successes of the past. I think the next big thing to come out of Arkansas could come out of left field from one of these researchers. It’s really cool to me that all this exciting work is happening in Arkansas.”
The ARA Academy was founded in 2016 and is comprised of ARA Fellows and Scholars from the state’s five major research universities (University of Arkansas, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Arkansas State University, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff), plus the U.S. FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research.
Originally organized to help recruit and retain world-class talent at the universities in Arkansas, ARA also plays a key role in helping these individuals connect their ideas to the marketplace either directly or in partnership with other businesses.
“The Academy is a group of researchers who have been selected in some capacity by the heads of their campuses to participate with us. ARA’s role is to help them do more in whatever direction they want to take [their work],” Hutchings says.
“My background is aligned with commercialization of research, but it can be industry engagement, it can be more funding for basic research, it can take a lot of different roles in how folks define impact.”
Since its inception, the ARA Academy has expanded to nearly 30 members, bringing together many of the state’s top researchers for collaboration and idea-sharing.
“When you look at the Arkansas Research Alliance and the academy members, they have curated some very highly productive researchers at all the different state institutions,” Hutchings says. “This role gives me an opportunity to help them expand their impact. It’s very much kind of a concierge role where I’m learning what impact these researchers want to have and then trying to help them achieve it.”
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Hutchings says the state already has established itself as a research leader in some science-based fields, including power electronics, energy, food science, transportation and logistics as well as medical innovation through UAMS. But the academic side of such subject matter only tells part of the story.
“One of the things I have been very impressed with is the university systems themselves are starting to do a lot more industry engagement,” Hutchings says. “When researchers start diving into a problem it’s usually because they anticipate a solution coming out the other end. Some things start on the research side and then other things are starting more on the development side. Depending where technology falls in its life cycle, it can be either a very heavy lift to get it ready for market or it can be a relatively light lift.”
“Having a practical understanding of what needs to happen to get from the lab to the market allows you to align your resources appropriately. That’s one of the things that I hope to be helping the Academy members with, is lining things up in terms of if they want to pursue commercialization and if not, helping them connect with the right industry partners who may be interested in working with them.”
“I see my role working closely with the existing infrastructure and trying to minimize friction points for Academy members moving their technologies forward.”
After graduating from the Arkansas School for Math and Science in Hot Springs, Hutchings earned his undergraduate degree from Hendrix College in Conway, then earned his advanced degrees through the University of Arkansas.
He founded Silicon Solar Solutions (SSS) while still pursuing his Ph.D. at the U of A. Upon graduation, he took on the responsibility of continuing to oversee the technical and business development of the company’s interdisciplinary staff of eight. Picasolar Inc, was spun out of SSS in 2012; Douglas led that team to compete in 23 international business competitions, placing in the top three in all of them and winning 12 outright.
As part of ARA, he’s adopting an equally competitive mindset, this time to help attract and develop as many top researchers to the state as possible, something Arkansas is better-positioned to do than many people think. He said while substantial challenges exist, getting a researcher to land here early in their work process helps ensure they will remain to take the next steps locally.
“When you think about everything we have to offer in Arkansas, it’s a pretty complete package,” he says. “The place that I think we fall short sometimes is access to resources; if you are a talented researcher and you have an option where you can jump-start your research with a bigger pool of resources, then that’s something you have to take into consideration. There’s definitely been times when we’ve lost really promising researchers because they had a better offer elsewhere.”
“Part of what ARA tries to do is help with some of that. There’s a lot of data out there around where someone establishes their professional nexus early on, that tends to be sticky. Where they have that early network tends to be where they build out their career.”
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