Converting new knowledge and ideas that emerge from research into products and services that impact patient health and well-being remains a strategic focus for our university and UT System. Over the past couple of years, we have developed strategies and identified resources to create stepping stones for a pathway to innovation and commercialization on our campus. The programs launched to date and listed below are fueling a shared vision to create a dedicated space where faculty, clinicians, trainees, and staff can get guidance, mentoring and assistance on medical product development and business startup.  

To support our strategic initiative, a national consultant has been hired by the university to assess the need for a business incubation program (science incubator) to support commercialization of intellectual property developed at the Health Science Center and provide a resource for the creation of new ventures. 

The consultant has conducted a large number of interviews with faculty, students, administrators, and external community and business leaders, and has been charged to identify the best business model for an incubator that complements the efforts of the Office of Technology Commercialization, and raises the visibility of the university as a center of innovation in biomedicine. This October, the business plan will be presented to the university’s leadership and research community.

Current Initiatives on Entrepreneurship:

• In spring 2015, a new course focusing on Biomedical Product Development (INTD 7074) was introduced and over 40 faculty and students have enrolled
• Two workshops on NIH-SBIR/STTR grants, a non-dilutive funding source, have been scheduled in late summer 2016
• Classes on “How to Pitch Your Business” will be offered from 7-8 a.m. on Sept. 7 at the Briscoe Library
• Kick-off September 26, for NSF Innovation Corps Workshop, providing a real-world, hands-on, immersive learning curriculum, in partnership with UT System institutions
• Philanthropic support from the Stella C. Herff Charitable Trust to fund the President’s Translational & Entrepreneurial (PTEF) grant awards
• The Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program provides consultation to faculty and students on how to commercialize their patent portfolio through licenses and startups
• Commercialization Catalysts (Com-CATS), a student organization that has developed an internship and mentorship relationship with the OTC
• Science, Technology, Investors, Reception (STIR), affording faculty inventors to network with one another and meet investors with interest in funding life sciences ventures. STIR events are hosted twice a year.