UC steps up role in encouraging startups on and off campus

The University of Cincinnati is co-hosting “University Start-Ups: Getting Beyond Challenges, Making It Happen” Nov. 9-10 in Louisville, a conference serving as a “mini boot-camp” on the various stages of creating a startup, from evaluating the idea to working with professional partners.
 
The event is organized by OVALS, formerly the Ohio Valley Association of Life Sciences, although its scope now extends beyond life sciences; the group of universities regularly holds conferences on startups and commercialization topics. UC was a founding member of OVALS 14 years ago.
 
“Our focus has always been commercialization, bringing scientific discoveries to the market,” explains Dorothy Air, UC’s Associate Vice President for Entrepreneurial Affairs and Technology Commercialization. “We’ve always focused on startups. Just this year we’re focusing it in a slightly different way with the mini boot-camp. I like the fact that we are very focused on practical things: Here are the critical aspects of starting a business, here’s how you work with partners, here’s what you need to be thinking about.”
 
Air says the model of this year’s conference makes it particularly appealing for not just universities looking to support commercialization of technology but anyone interested in starting a tech company or getting his or her idea off the ground.
 
“We’re trying to attract the ecosystem of everyone who is participating,” she says. “It will be useful for any startup.”
 
The conference will feature sessions on deciding whether a certain technology is right for a startup, how to make a company a reality, how to move forward and partner with industry, and how to look for and secure funding sources. It will also include a showcase of early-stage technologies coming out of participating universities and a keynote speaker, Nan Mallory MD, who successfully launched a startup companyt based on technology from university research.
 
For Air, the conference fits well into UC’s new model for supporting innovation. A few years ago, the university didn’t do much beyond helping inventors secure patents and intellectual property rights for their innovations. Recently, though, UC has “flipped the model,” Air says, focusing on a comprehensive approach to supporting startups and the full commercialization of new technologies to come out of university research.
Dorothy Air 
The Louisville conference is part of that comprehensive model, as is the research accelerator UC is building at its former Campus Services building on Reading Road. UC is also hosting entrepreneurs in residence to help serve as a resource for faculty and students.
 
The university has even changed the way it tracks progress and success of commercialization, going from tracking the number of patents awarded to looking at the stages along the pathway of a startup from idea to available product. UC leaders are focusing heavily on supporting the difficult early stages of development and on partnering with the public and industry to inform university-supported processes.
 
“The OVALS conference fits into our overall strategy because we want to develop external visibility,” Air says. “We’re really kind of early on in this, and I think we’re starting to see more traction.”
 
The “University Start-Ups” conference will take place Nov. 9-10 at the Seelbach Hilton Hotel, 500 S. Fourth St. in downtown Louisville. Besides UC and CincyTech USA, host institutions include Indiana University, Ohio State University, Ohio University, Purdue University, University of Dayton, University of Kentucky and University of Louisville. Get more information and register here.