Innovación Colegial: From the Laboratory to the Market

 

 

Innovación Colegial

The Puerto Rico Techno-Economic Corridor (PRTEC) and the Research and Development Center (RDC) of the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus launched the program University Innovation: from Laboratory to Marketplace with the aim of closing the gap between the creation of intellectual property and commercialization at UPRM. The two year program will be sponsored with a $50,000 grant from the Puerto Rico Science Trust.

 

The proposed program University Innovation: from Laboratory to Marketplace will offer direct support activities to researchers and students at UPRM that are on track to commercialize their research results. This program is the next logical step in the evolution of PRTEC efforts on Campus. It will include three main types of activities:

 

 

 

•        Group Workshops

 

We will offer two workshops each year (one per semester) where experts in the field of commercialization in the university will provide resources and serve as guest speakers. Some of these will be researchers that have had success in commercializing their technologies and directors of technology transfer offices in universities with extensive experience and success in this field.

 

 

 

•        Matchmaking Activities with Entrepreneurs and Investors

 

PRTEC will coordinate matchmaking activities where researchers will be invited to share time with entrepreneurs, investors, Vitec2 tenants, and others, so that they can have the opportunity to establish business contacts and potential strategic alliances that will assist and encourage them in their commercialization processes.

 

 

 

•        Mentoring / Consulting Services

 

The technical and business personnel of PRTEC will offer individualized mentoring and consulting services to the project’s participants, and will also provide incubation space in Vitec2 for those projects that are sufficiently developed or matured to have their business office and to start working on their business plans.

 

Other activities will include organizing elevator pitch competitions between students, mentoring projects to 

 

participate in Business Plan competitions, support in writing SBIR proposals, etc.