UC rising among downtown universities

UC’s approach to innovation as outlined in the Next Lives Here strategic direction embraces these advantages, benefiting the university, its faculty, staff, students and the region as a whole.  If the Brookings rankings were to be tabulated again today, UC would be ranked No. 27. 

Driving the growth: a 400% increase in startups over the past year, as well as an increase in patent disclosures. Both can be traced back to UC’s Office of Innovation and the 1819 Innovation Hub, where new programs and streamlined processes have greased the wheels of entrepreneurship. 

“It’s funny how things improve when you measure them,” says David J. Adams, UC’s chief innovation officer. “These are good metrics for us as a university, but we’re going to be very proactive in continuing to enhance processes and accelerate opportunities for UC faculty and students.” 

UC once aimed to retain all rights to intellectual property created by faculty on campus with significant UC resources. That’s a real disincentive to investors who might otherwise be interested in funding a faculty-owned startup or industry who wants to sponsor research here on campus, Adams says. A new express license policy has allowed recent UC startups to launch their startup and start generating revenue in mere months instead of years, with UC collecting a portion of revenue when the  venture succeeds. 

“We want entrepreneurially minded faculty to understand that we’ve done a tremendous amount to reduce the friction associated with commercializing their intellectual property,” Adams says. “You don’t have to go to Silicon Valley. You can make it happen here. We want our faculty and students to achieve great things, and we believe the university will benefit as a result.”