News
Holiday Newsletter – December 2021
12/17/2021I’m pleased to share with you our final newsletter for 2021, along with stories and reflections from a year that was both challenging and rewarding. The resilient U-M innovation ecosystem continued to gain momentum in 2021, with a record number of commercialization agreements executed as well as nearly $1.5B in...
2021 Outstanding Service Award
12/17/2021Q&A with Lisa Johnson – Jessica Soulliere Outstanding Service Award Recipient For her can-do attitude, infectious positive energy, and willingness to help anyone and everyone, Lisa Johnson was awarded Innovation Partnerships’ Jessica Soulliere Outstanding Service Award. The award is named for our late colleague, Jessica Soulliere, who was a trusted...
Welcome to Innovation Partnerships
12/17/2021Recently launched Innovation Partnerships is positioned to amplify the impact of U-M innovators through a broadened scope of commercialization and partnership opportunities, and a team that brings a wealth of cumulative experience, connections and versatility. Alongside its new name, Innovation Partnerships created a Corporate Research Alliances unit to enhance support...
Corporate Research Alliances
12/17/2021The newly established Corporate Research Alliances (CRA) unit within Innovation Partnerships is gearing up to provide a gateway for research partnerships between U-M faculty and industry. The unit supports and streamlines the establishment, implementation and ongoing management of research collaborations by providing faculty-facing support to convert industry relationships into successful...
Momentous First Year for U-M’s Accelerate Blue Fund
12/17/2021It’s been another momentous year for the Accelerate Blue Fund (ABF), the evergreen investment fund for U-M startups. ABF aims to bridge the funding gap between initial launch and angel/VC funding and invests exclusively in tech startups based on licensed U-M intellectual property. The Fund is being raised through the...
Professor Emeritus Sridhar Kota
12/16/2021From researcher to inventor to entrepreneur to D.C. policymaker for engineering and manufacturing, recently retired U-M Professor Sridhar Kota reflects on the struggles and rewards of translating ideas to products and how the system as a whole can do better. Kota’s positions and accomplishments are many. He was a professor...
MTRAC Advanced Transportation Hub Funding Awards
10/14/2021U-M MTRAC Advanced Transportation Hub Announces 2021-2022 Funding Awards for High-Tech Mobility Projects By Courtney Overbey ANN ARBOR, Mich., August 30, 2021 — The Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) Advanced Transportation Hub at the University of Michigan announced 2021-2022 awards totaling over $600,000 for diverse high-tech, early-stage mobility projects...
New Innovation Partnerships Launch
10/6/2021Innovation Partnerships Leads U-M Research Commercialization Efforts The University of Michigan has announced the launch of Innovation Partnerships, a reorganized unit that will serve as a central hub to lead research commercialization efforts, support startup company launch and growth, and create and foster corporate research alliances. The newly named Innovation...
2021 Distinguished University Innovator
9/16/2021Professor Behind Breakthrough Tools for Weather Data, Education Wins Annual U-M Innovation Award By Jeff Karoub Michigan News For developing a series of pioneering learning and weather-related tools and technologies and launching successful companies around them that serve millions of people, University of Michigan professor Perry Samson has earned this...
A Critical Center for Critical Care
8/18/2021U-M’s Weil Institute is charged with developing transformative technologies for patients. In the seven years since its founding, Weil Institute has collaborated with Innovation Partnerships to spin out eight companies and licensed 14 products that are making positive impacts on patients in the critical care setting. Last year alone, the...
InheRET: Finding At-Risk People Before They Become Cancer Patients
7/14/2021U-M startup InheRET is making an impact on patients and care centers with its tool that more accurately identifies which people are at risk for developing inherited cancers than standard family histories. It arms patients and their clinicians with information that enables careful monitoring and earlier intervention. The Inherited Risk...
U-M’s Kelly Sexton – Preserve Innovation at Michigan’s Research Universities
6/30/2021The Detroit News by Kelly Sexton, Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Research, Technology Transfer and Innovation Partnerships, University of Michigan In 2020, the University of Michigan reported a record 268 licensing agreements and launched 31 startup businesses. Thanks to rights granted by the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act, UM labs alone have...