The Office of Research and Innovation, in collaboration with the Office of Undergraduate Education and the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, is offering three new programs this fall for research faculty, PhD candidates, postdocs, and other UT Dallas researchers interested in commercializing their inventions.
The programs are:
- the Bio-Engineering Startup Training (BEST) series, and
- the UTDiscovery Scholar Awards
If you have any interest in commercializing your research – now or in the future – through licensing to large enterprises or launching your own startup venture, these programs are for you!
The Best Series
The Bio-Engineering Startup Training (BEST) series is a new, customized education and training program for the bioengineering and life sciences community. This series will be 8 sessions held on alternating Fridays from 4:00-5:15pm at the UT Dallas Blackstone LaunchPad.
Each session will focus on a key commercialization part of the startup creation process, including guest speakers with real-world experience in developing and funding bio startups, with Q&A, discussions, and networking after.
Here is our schedule of sessions and topics. Food and beverages will be provided. Attendance is free, we just ask you to RSVP with Denyse Carpio (denyse.carpio@utdallas.edu) so we know to expect you and keep you updated on any calendar changes.
| Aug. 27 | Program Introductions and Welcome |
| Sept. 10 | From Idea to Concept to Plan – Finding the Pain Point & Team Formation (with Dr. Ted Price) |
| Sept. 24 | Know Your Market – Understanding customer needs, market analysis, road to market, and regulatory matters |
| Oct. 8 | Tools In the Toolbox – Pitches, Exec Summaries, MVP, budgets, the tools to help you mature your concept and share with investors. |
| Oct. 22 | Understanding Funding – Venture Capital, Angel investors, term sheets, and valuations (with Dr. Claire Aldridge) |
| Nov. 5 | Intellectual Property – Disclosures, patents, other forms of protection, negotiating licenses |
| Nov. 19 | Incorporating – Company formation, legal, HR, accounting, payroll, taxes |
| Dec. 3 | Wrap-up, Participants Give Their Own Progress Pitch. |
The BEST series is a pilot of a concept to be offered to a broader range of STEM research field in the future. The goal is to increase the pool of talented, prepared “scientist-entrepreneurs” who could serve as CEOs or founders of a startup company, based on their research and UT Dallas intellectual property.
UTDiscovery Scholar Awards
The UTDiscovery Awards are a competitive award designed to reward the contributions and facilitate the entrepreneurial development of undergraduate researchers at UT Dallas. UTDiscovery scholars will work directly with startup companies that are members of UTD’s Venture Development Center, or VDC.
The principals for these VDC and pre-incubator companies are engaged in a variety of research, from basic to applied, to equip their startups for commercial success.
Research projects may range across a broad spectrum of possibilities, from validating product technologies, to investigating market or customer insights, to identifying prior art and existing alternatives to the startups company’s proposed solution.
Students selected to receive an UTDiscovery Award receive $2,000, awarded upon participation in the UTDiscovery Award poster competition held in mid-December 2021 (Fall) and/or mid-April 2022 (Spring). Research sponsors from the UT Dallas VDC supporting participant projects receive $500 (for supplies, project travel, poster printing, etc.). Up to 10 awards may be made per semester. For more information about the UTDiscovery Awards, please contact Hillary Campbell (hillary.campbell@utdallas.edu).