After earning his doctorate in materials science at the University and serving as program manager of nanotechnology for the U.S. Air Force, John Busbee helped found the Xerion Advanced Battery Corp., where he currently serves as its CEO.

Xerion is a business involved in developing and commercializing next generation ultra-high power. It began in October 2011 and has already garnered interest from several Fortune 500 companies.

Busbee’s business is just one of many examples as to why Champaign-Urbana, alongside major metropolitan areas like Detroit and Atlanta, has been recognized as a promising region for technological innovation in 2014 by Techie.com.

Laura Frerichs, director of the University’s Research Park, believes that Champaign-Urbana has had a history of technological innovation from an industry standpoint. She attributed the success to entrepreneurial, corporate and community aspects of the area. 

Companies like Wolfram Research, which originated at the University, become successful by taking advantage of the wealth of research that goes on at the University and translate it into business.

“The entrepreneurial culture over the last ten years has really improved,” Frerichs said. “The University has put a lot of effort towards facilities to support an entrepreneurial community making it easier for students and professors to start companies.”

The University receives about $8 million a year in grants like the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer grants, said Erik Kotewa, deputy director at the Champaign County Economic Development Corporation. This means that Champaign County makes up for almost 18 percent of research funding for the entire state, according to the Research Park website. 

The incubator at EnterpriseWorks serves as a primary resource for many start-up companies through which they can get laboratory, office or co-working space. Within EnterpriseWorks there is a program called I-Start, which assists entrepreneurs with first-year services like business planning and development, financial statements, marketing and grants.

“It depends on the type of company. If they’re a biotech company, their needs are going to be very different from a mobile app company, and we try to serve all of it,” Frerichs said. “Which is the neat thing about Champaign-Urbana … there’s a really wide range of science taking place here.”

Busbee weighed in on how the incubator has helped his business, Xerion. 

“It’s been  advantageous for us to be in the incubator because our technology is a nanotechnology, and access to the electron microscopy facilities on campus have been really critical to our success,” he said. 

Frerichs said out of 105 companies that have graduated from EnterpriseWorks since it opened in 2003, 59 percent are still in business or have been successfully acquired. Of those remaining successful companies, 64 percent are still located in Illinois. About half of those companies are based in Champaign County. 

Frerichs also identified the corporate side, stating that companies like Yahoo!, Intel and Sony are located in this area because of the scientific quality that is produced on campus, the breadth of areas that can receive help and because the area is less competitive for resources than Cambridge or MIT. 

“I think Champaign-Urbana is both bright and a rich source of talent but also relatively a bargain for a city in the U.S. to establish technical operations,” she said.

Kotewa also mentioned that he’s heard that the start-up environment is much friendlier in Champaign-Urbana than it is in much larger places like MIT. 

She added that finally, in order for the Champaign-Urbana region to acquire businesses and thus make it a leader of innovation, the community needs to be appealing as well.

“We need to be a place where the tech sector feels comfortable living and working and that usually tends to be a young professional type of crowd,” Frerichs said. 

Busbee added that incubators at other schools may offer office and lab space but they don’t have the immersive entrepreneurial experiences like those offered at the University and community as a whole. 

“The unique aspect that makes us different from Bloomington, Normal or other places is the University of Illinois,” said Kotewa. “If it wasn’t here, companies would not be here, and therefore many jobs would not be here.”

Edward can be reached [email protected].