Driven to Discover, Expanding Impact
The research enterprise at the University of Minnesota is among the best in the world. But life-changing breakthroughs can only truly change lives if they get into the hands of those who can benefit. UMN’s Technology Commercialization office has grown over the past two decades with one guiding vision:
Turn innovations into new businesses and products that will make a positive impact on our world.
These efforts have resulted in a “#1 in the Heartland” distinction for University tech transfer, along with a 70% startup survival rate. These are notable achievements, but not reasons to rest.
Our successful Minnesota model does not come with access to Silicon Valley- or Boston-level venture capital. But it’s built on limitless passion to pursue even more benefits to society through innovations from a growing number of University startups. Along the way, opportunities to inspire and train the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs are multiplied.
Let’s Unleash (More) Innovation
UMN is poised to become a Top 3 destination for faculty and students looking to advance life-changing innovations from the lab to the marketplace.
We have built an institutional culture that turns great discoveries into great technologies with a commitment to get them into the lives of the people who need them.
Already, UMN discoveries are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, at work improving human health, and helping to enhance pre-K child development, to name just a few areas of impact.
The benefits of this commercialized research create a ripple effect in the form of jobs and economic activity in communities where these businesses are based – usually right here in Minnesota.
For grad students and postdocs who are part of this success – assisting in the lab, ideating product development, or writing a business plan – they receive unparalleled entrepreneurial experience and opportunities to one day create their own solutions to challenges large and small.
A Plan to Scale Up
We are proud of our technology transfer success, but we know we could be doing much more. We want to take this work to the next level, to upsize our proven process for getting opportunities to innovators and innovations to market. Watch this brief video to learn more about Discover→Advance→Impact™.
Visionary Philanthropy for Amplified Opportunity
Donors play a key role in this vision. We need philanthropic partners who share our passion for innovation, entrepreneurship, mentorship, and most importantly impact.
This Discover→Advance→Impact™ fundraising initiative seeks to raise $40 million to add more people, more programming, more space, and more opportunities to the tech transfer model that we know works, but is currently undersized for its potential.
The University believes in this vision so deeply that we’re backing it with our own $20 million investment.
If we can hit our initial $40 million fundraising goal, our model predicts that the expanded program will be self-sustaining through tech transfer and reinvestment in only a few years.
A lead gift now will ensure future stability and growth for our state’s entrepreneurial engine: the University of Minnesota.
Discover→Advance→Impact™
The University of Minnesota has a deep history as a business creator and industry shaper. For example, UMN played a role in the early days of 3M and Medtronic, global corporations with life-changing missions.
Now, we continue to nurture a culture of collaborative problem-solving that creates successful new businesses from novel research innovations.
Clean earth magnet - the world's first high performance magnet that is free of rare earth minerals.
"The Venture Center and their Discovery Capital program were a core part of helping Niron launch as a business and have been incredibly supportive in many key aspects of helping Niron grow and accelerate. We have had a long-standing collaborative and productive relationship with the UMN - technically, financially and commercially - and are incredibly excited about the future."
- Andy Blackburn, Niron Magnetics
Rapidly and safely weaning patients off of ventilators - to breathe on their own.
"Originating from the University of Minnesota, having their endorsement on our cap table underscores the credibility of our technology. This partnership provides a platform to connect with technical specialists from both engineering and clinical sectors. We recently completed first-in-human implant and enrolled our first patient into an FDA approved pivotal study."
- Tim Miller, Stimdia Medical
The Executive Function Company - helping educators, families, and students measure and improve cognitive skills they need to succeed in school, career, and life.
"The Discovery Capital program was crucial to Reflection Sciences raising our initial funding round. We would have struggled to find that initial institutional investment. By receiving that early investment, we were able to develop a commercial-ready product, build a team and design a sales and service process. Now, Reflection Sciences is helping 100,000 students nationwide and growing!"
- Stephanie Carlson, Reflection Sciences
(UMN faculty)
The Innovators of Tomorrow Need Support Today
Future entrepreneurs are shaping their ideas today for the world they want to live in. It’s a place where more people benefit from breakthrough technologies that address our biggest challenges. But those bright minds can’t create the world they envision until we close the gap between ‘initial idea’ and ‘impactful product.’
As any business leader who was once a budding entrepreneur knows, it isn’t easy to get investors to place bets on an idea – even one that shows considerable promise.
Enter the UMN Discover→Advance→Impact™ model, which has already helped hundreds of entrepreneurs just starting out attain the experience, mentorship, and – most importantly – funding to scale their research into a company with forward momentum.
For many, it is so much more than a business venture; it is the realization of a lifelong dream that includes personal growth and acquisition of valuable new skills. That’s why a gift to Discover→Advance→Impact™ is also an investment in the spirit of entrepreneurism.
Innovation: An environmentally friendlier insect and invasive species control technology that relies on genetics rather than chemicals; development led by early-career UMN researcher Siba Das
Early support: UMN Technology Commercialization’s Venture Center and the Discovery Launchpad provided support during the startup and licensing phases
Funding: NovoClade won a $1 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF)
Impact: “The [UMN] Venture Center was instrumental in helping me create a pitch deck that was appealing to business people. I’ve given many scientific talks, but I had to learn new jargon to be successful in pitch competitions. Being successful at those competitions really inspired confidence in our technology.”
– Siba Das, Scientist-turned-executive, NovoClade
Innovation: A fundamentally different MRI machine that uses a patent-pending approach called frequency-modulated Rabi-encoded echoes (FREE). The promising approach removes B0 gradient coils, which can cut the cost of an MRI by approximately 30 percent as well as make it silent, smaller, and less problematic for children.
Funding: An initial UMN grant of $148,000 enabled CEO Efraín Torres and COO Parker Jenkins (pictured, left to right) to apply their proprietary MRI technology platform to pediatric MRI scanning. Just one year later, the team broke $1.3 million in funding and are looking to complete their seed round of financing at $3.5 million.
Impact: “This MRI scanner is going to disrupt the field. The goal is to make a difference in communities like the ones I grew up in on the south side of Chicago, where the clinics are very bare bones and lacking even second-rate technology. Soon, it’ll be possible for MRI scanners to be wherever they’re needed — minute clinics, doctor’s offices, and even refugee camps.”
– Efraín Torres, CEO, Adialante