The Technology Licensing Office’s bi-weekly market research report highlights emerging trends, market signals, and industry developments that may inform research and commercialization strategy across the University of Utah. Each edition curates timely insights from key sectors to help faculty, researchers, and innovation partners identify opportunities, anticipate market needs, and align discoveries with real-world demand.
Emerging Market Insights
Data Centers and Drought are Accelerating Demand for Verified Water-Resilience Technologies
Utah’s water future is increasingly shaped by the collision of aridification, Great Salt Lake decline, and rapid AI infrastructure growth. Technologies such as cloud seeding, atmospheric water harvesting, water reuse tech, and low-water data-center cooling offer potential relief, but their safety and effectiveness must be demonstrated at scale. Protection of water resources in arid regions is becoming a key political and economic priority in Utah and comparable drought-stressed regions. Faculty can support these priorities by creating independent validation systems for water yield, avoided consumption, contaminant risks, energy intensity, and watershed-level impacts.
See also: Rainmaker Touts Proof That Cloud Seeding Delivers Results
Supply Chain Visibility Becomes Essential as Critical Mineral Risks Continue
Reducing dependence on China has long been central to critical mineral strategy, but continued export controls and refining concentration have made traceability more urgent. By verifying mineral origin, processing location, chain of custody, and sustainability attributes, traceability can help governments and companies achieve security, resilience, and reliability objectives. It also supports supplier diversification, policy compliance, and access to alternative sources. Adoption of these traceable systems remains difficult due to high costs, fragmented systems, supplier leverage gaps, confidentiality concerns, and uncertain data quality. Faculty can align with solving these challenges by designing interoperable standards, secure verification systems, easy-to-integrate solutions, and scalable traceability models.
Upcoming Webinars
Critical Minerals: An Opportunity Worth Chasing? – Thursday, June 11, 2026
This webinar from Lux Research webinar examines which minerals face the greatest supply threats and what innovation strategies can help energy and industrial companies build resilient positions in critical minerals.
DuPont Water Academy Webinar Series: Enhancing Reverse Osmosis System Efficiency – Thursday, June 11, 2026
DuPont Water Academy offers many on demand and upcoming professional webinars to expand water industry stakeholder knowledge, including this upcoming session on AI-enabled reverse osmosis efficiency.
Tools & Resources
Access additional market information through powerful tools available from the J. Willard Marriott Library:
Markets and Markets – Comprehensive market reports, with competitive intelligence and trends
BCC Research – Detailed market forecasting and industry analysis
Factiva – Global news and business information
Pitchbook – Private market and investment data
Researchers can contact the Technology Licensing Office (TLO), Eccles Health Science Library, J. Willard Marriott Library, or Center for Medical Innovation (CMI) for tailored market information.
Need help getting started?
Explore our full Market Research for Inventors page for tools, examples, and a step-by-step PDF guide to walk you through the process.
This article was originally published on The Technology Licensing Office page.
