Sarah Gantz
Reporter- Baltimore Business Journal 

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.

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