Just one week into his job as the first director for Discovery to Product (D2P), John Biondi knows the many tasks ahead of him.

The University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) created D2P in November for faculty and students to have a gateway for accessing resources for commercializing their ideas.

“We’re bringing the accelerator model and embedding it into the university,” Biondi, who previously served as CEO of Xolve, said to the monthly WIN luncheon attendees Tuesday at the Sheraton Hotel.

However, a lot of structures need to be put in place. According to Biondi, D2P needs a process for working with clients, a database for resources and eventually metrics such as number of licenses to measure success.

D2P is focusing on five areas–physical science/engineering, agriculture, medical devices, computer science/IT and pharma–and so far has 67 applicants, Biondi said.

About 12 will get funded by the two-year, $2.4 million Igniter grant, which collaborates with D2P. Biondi’s goal is to help these dozen or so groups until they’re ready to exit, which means incorporating.

At the end of the day, D2P is supposed to help projects get their commercial footing.

“Our clear focus is to take the Wisconsin Idea and move it into economic development,” Biondi said. “The notion that the university has to contribute to economic development is fundamentally there.”