Industrial Liaison Officer

Position Overview
The Industrial Liaison Officer (ILO) will lead the effort to identify and facilitate collaborations with companies and other external stakeholders that interact with the HVACR market. This individual will report to the EARTH Innovation Ecosystem Lead and will be the voice of industry and other stakeholders, working closely with EARTH leadership to shape the vision and long-range strategy for the center. The ILO will work with academic partner technology transfer offices to ensure there are appropriate communications to consortium members per the membership agreement. Moreover, the ILO contributes to student training by encouraging internships with members, fostering industry seminars on best practices, and sharing their extensive experiences in industry. An ideal candidate for this position is someone who is eager to make a difference in academia by strengthening university-industry interactions and mentoring students.

About Engineering Research Center:
Heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) are essential to the quality of life for all humans. HVACR systems are widespread throughout society, enabling transportation and preservation of fresh foods, storage of medicines, and cooling of buildings. However, most refrigerants used today are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which have high global-warming potential (GWP), with 2000-4000 times the impact of CO2. Combined with high leak rates and high energy consumption, HFCs account for 7.8% of total greenhouse-gas emissions.

To address this challenge, a new NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC): Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH) will create a sustainable refrigerant lifecycle" to address technical, environmental, and societal challenges facing the HVACR industry. EARTH is a multi-institution, multi-disciplinary team from the University of Kansas, University of Notre Dame, University of Hawai'i, University of Maryland, University of South Dakota, and Lehigh University.

Job Description
55% Consortia Program Development:
The EARTH ILO will recruit, manage and sustain the Members Consortium in keeping with the executed MOU and individual Membership Agreements. This will include activities such as:

• Identify, engage and recruit industry and other external stakeholders to participate in EARTH programs.
• Serve as primary point of contact between EARTH and external stakeholders such as industry representatives (both current and potential members), professional groups, regulatory bodies, and others as appropriate.
• Facilitate meetings between industry leaders, other external stakeholders, and EARTH researchers, either on campus or at corporate sites.
• Coordinate with the KU Office of Research to execute and manage Membership Agreements amongst the industry members. In addition, as membership fees are allocated to projects or activities, work with KUOR to ensure subawards are executed appropriately.
• Organize and run Industry Advisory Board meetings.
• Organize and host quarterly Industry Advisory Board meetings.
• Coordinate annual project evaluation process in conjunction with the annual ERC meeting, collect, and in conjunction with EARTH members act upon feedback from advisory boards.
• Develop a strong working knowledge of technical expertise, capabilities, and EARTH related institutional ecosystems across EARTH partner institutions.
• Coordinate industry sponsored projects.
• Assist EARTH faculty with proposal development and project management for industry-sponsored research projects that are outside of the membership agreement.
• Coordinate with the industry members to develop internship opportunities, capstone projects and design challenge events.
• Work with industry consortia members to enhance their engagement with EARTH, including activities such as technical seminars, seminars on professional development topics such as teamwork, communication, lab safety and others.
• Coordinate with industry consortia members to expose our students to internship opportunities as well as full time positions.

25% IP Management & Innovation Acceleration:

• Assist in the management of EARTH Intellectual Property.
• Assist researchers in coordinating the preparation and submission of invention disclosures to their respective Technology Transfer Offices.
• As per the membership agreement and the MOU, provide invention visibility to EARTH's industry partners.
• Review manuscripts and presentations for potentially patentable information prior to public disclosure.
• Provide IP orientation for new EARTH researchers.
• In collaboration with the CIO and the respective Technology Transfer Offices, manage the IP Advisory Board, gaining insights from EARTH's Gold Members.
• Along with the CIO support the Acceleration Team strategy, bringing industry guidance and recommendations into the EARTH projects.

15% - Collaboration and Outreach:

• Participate in Outreach to the broader HVACR community through the development and execution of a Road Show Strategy that showcases EARTH outcomes at national and international conferences and workshops.
• Co-author newsletters and promotional materials with other ERC EARTH staff.
• Support the EARTH Knowledge Warehouse by identifying relevant publications (technical and market based), managing publication of nonconfidential disclosures, adding EARTH resources that might be of value to the HVACR industry as a whole and also to our consortium partners.

5% - Other Duties:

• Actively participate in the NSF ERC ILO working group and other cross ERC groups as appropriate.

Position Requirements
This position works primarily on-site at KU but remote work may be considered per mutual agreement between the EARTH director and selected candidate. Travel will be required to partner institutions as well as industry and other stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

1. B.S. in Engineering, Chemistry, or closely related field.
2. Three years of direct work experience in corporate relations or five years of industry-related experience.
3. Previous experience that required written and interpersonal communication skills, as evidenced by application materials.
4. Proven track record of scientific/technical contributions, as evidenced by activities such as: increasing corporate responsibilities, patents, publications, invited lectures, and awards from professional societies.
5. Knowledge of intellectual property protection and licensing, as evidenced in application materials.

Preferred Qualifications

1. Previously held senior leadership position in corporate R&D or technology management.
2. Knowledge of research university culture and operations, as demonstrated by previous work history.
3. Broad network of personal contacts in HVACR and related technology sectors, as evidenced by application materials.
4. Familiarity with current HVACR manufacturing processes, process economics, technology strategies of corporations, and managerial procedures in the chemical enterprise, as demonstrated by application materials.
5. Experience with successful scale-up or commercialization of new technology, as demonstrated by previous work history.
6. Graduate degree in Engineering, Chemistry, Business or other closely related field.

Additional Candidate Instructions
In addition to the online application, the following documents are required to be considered for this position:

• Cover letter addressing how you meet the required and preferred qualifications
• Resume
• Contact information for three professional references

Application review begins Monday, November 18th, 2024. For consideration, please apply no later than Sunday, November 17th, 2024.

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