Loveland’s technology-transfer initiative is proving popular – so much so that companies have started to pay their own way for a program initially funded by the city.

Nearly two-dozen Northern Colorado companies have participated in the program, which includes the services of DA2 Consulting, run by David Lung, a 25-year veteran of the aerospace, defense and energy industries. Businesses have made connections with NASA and the agency’s technologies as well as developed relationships among themselves through the initiative.

“Entrepreneurs still place a large amount of value in relationships and one-on-one, face-to-face communication,” Loveland Economic Development Director Betsey Hale said in explaining the popularity of the program.

Companies participating in the initiative have ranged from Loveland’s semiconductor manufacturer CADEKA and Numerica, which develops advanced software, to Scion UAS, developer of unmanned aerial systems.

Loveland’s Vergent, which manufactures other companies’ products, visited NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio with Lung earlier this year. The company was one of the first to participate in Loveland’s program.