Skip to main content

News

You are here

Schools Make Concerted Effort to Cash in on Big Ideas

Friday, February 8, 2013

Sarah Gantz
Reporter- Baltimore Business Journal 

Scott Strome launched a biotech company with the help of the University of Maryland.
Scott Strome launched a biotech company with the help of the University of Maryland.
The University System of Maryland is trying out a new way to get cutting-edge research out of the lab and into the market, and to turn their braniac professors into savvy entrepreneurs.

Instead of waiting for faculty to bring forward their big ideas for curing cancer, universities are going after them.

The concept is the focal point of UM Ventures, the most recent collaboration between the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park. The two schools are combining their technology transfer offices, hiring about seven “site miners” to tease out good ideas and changing the way faculty thinks about entrepreneurship.

“You go through your day and say, ‘Huh, if only that device was configured differently it would be easier, more effective.’ Those ideas people just don’t do anything with,” said Jim Hughes, vice president of enterprise and economic development for the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Hughes was named director of UM Ventures in November.

View full story