UUK wants investment in university innovation doubled to £10bn
Universities UK has set a goal of securing around £10 billion a year in external investment for UK university innovation by 2035. The vice-chancellors group said the ambition, to be announced today at the UK Global R&D and Science Investment Summit in London, would double estimated annual external investment in university spinouts, startups and social enterprises from […]
Columbia University’s Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research Awarded $75 Million to Advance Healthcare Discoveries
The Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research has been awarded a seven-year, $75 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As a cornerstone of clinical and translational research across Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), the Irving Institute drives translational […]
The Growing Role of Family Offices in GAP Programs and Research Translation
As research institutions continue building more sophisticated gap fund and accelerator programs (GAP), attention is increasingly focused on a familiar set of partners: government agencies, corporate innovation groups, foundations, venture capital firms, accelerators, venture studios, and angel investors. Yet one group remains surprisingly underrepresented in many university innovation and commercialization strategies: family offices. This is […]
GAP Insights: Academic Medical Centers / Building Commercialization Pathways for Clinician Innovators
Healthcare practitioners often have the clearest view of unmet clinical needs, yet few receive formal training in commercialization, venture development, or technology translation. Increasingly, academic medical centers are responding by building dedicated commercialization programs designed specifically to help clinicians transform frontline observations into market-ready solutions. Recent examples from Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Virginia […]
The Rise of Venture Formation Systems in Research Institutions
For decades, most university commercialization systems were built around a relatively straightforward objective: identify promising discoveries, protect intellectual property, and transfer innovations into the marketplace through licensing or startup formation. That model still exists. But the amount of development required between discovery and downstream engagement has expanded significantly. Across venture capital, angel investing, corporate innovation, […]
GAP Insights: Caltech / How Philanthropy Built a Lasting Commercialization Ecosystem
Philanthropic capital is often discussed as a source of research funding. At California Institute of Technology, philanthropy has played a much broader role by helping build the infrastructure, funding mechanisms, and culture that support technology commercialization. The latest example is an $11 million gift from the Gates Frontiers Fund, including $10 million to support equity […]
GAP Insights: Hong Kong / Government-Led Capital Formation for University Spinouts
Hong Kong is making a significant bet on university commercialization as a driver of economic development and innovation-led growth. Through the RAISe+ (Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus) scheme, the government has committed more than HK$3 billion (US$383 million) across 73 university-led commercialization projects. The program provides up to HK$100 million per university team, with […]
University Hospitals launches innovation program for startups
University Hospitals in Cleveland is partnering with Creative Destruction Lab and Case Western Reserve University to launch a healthcare innovation program designed to help startups test and scale technologies within a real clinical environment. The initiative, called CDL-Cleveland, will host Creative Destruction Lab’s Healthcare Delivery stream and marks the first CDL site anchored to a health system, […]
NSF deploys $250 million to restart Small Business Innovation Research & Small Business Tech Transfer programs
The U.S. National Science Foundation today relaunched its Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer programs with $250 million for the nation’s startups and small businesses, including an announcement of a new $40 million pilot emphasis area targeting the next generation of scientific instrumentation. The instrumentation initiative will invest in technologies that open entirely new […]
The Future Advantage of Research Institutions Will Be Translation, Not Discovery and IP Alone
For decades, much of the competitive advantage of research institutions was tied to discovery and intellectual property. Who generated the breakthrough, who could protect it, and who could afford to patent and develop it often defined which institutions were best positioned to capture long-term scientific, economic, and commercialization value from emerging technologies. Those foundations remain […]