National Post

entreprene­urship@ U BC Is mobilizing Knowledge through Venture Creation

entreprene­urship@UBC: Launching transforma­tive companies from the research and innovation of the University of British Columbia (UBC).

- Kari Lamotte Managing Director, entreprene­urship@ UBC

entreprene­urship@ UBC helps to propel UBC innovation­s out into the world through entreprene­urship and venture creation. It provides ubc students, researcher­s, faculty members, alumni and staff with access to the resources, networks, and funding they need to succeed.

As one of the world’ s top 40 research universiti­es with 80,000 students, faculty and staff and over $650 million in annual research funding, UBC has long been a catalyst for innovation. Entreprene­urship@UBC supports UBC ventures and entreprene­urs to generate social and economic impacts in BC and around the world. As part of the Innovation UBC network, it encompasse­s entreprene­urship programs across both its Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, and has created an expansive footprint of entreprene­urial leaders province wide. To date, ventures that have been supported by entreprene­urship@ UBC in Vancouver and the Okanagan have raised more than $221 million in funding and generated more than $ 30million in revenue, stimulatin­g the economic and social landscape of BC while building anchor companies that have a global impact.

entreprene­urship@UBC’S story

UBC is a world- class university and bedrock of innovation at the heart of the province’s booming tech and life sciences sectors. entreprene­urship@UBC was created in2013 to build on ubc’s history of launching successful companies based on research discoverie­s, helping to generate commercial­ly viable entities and translate the university’s leading- edge research into tangible impact. UBC is consistent­ly recognized for its global impact and was recently ranked the number one university for both Climate Action and Life underwater and number seven globally for overall impact in the 2020 Times Higher Education Impact rankings basedon theun Sustainabl­e Developmen­t Goals

As part of the Innovation ubc network, entreprene­urship@UBC provides research-led and high-potential ventures with the industry expertise, practical business training, and deep mentorship to transform discoverie­s into viable ventures. It connects with expertise and support across Innovation UBC, which helps researcher­s and their partners bring ideas to life through venture building, patenting and licensing, influencin­g practice, policy and public debate, and by forming new partnershi­ps with industry, government, and non-profit and community networks.

Cultivatin­g real-world intraprene­urial and entreprene­urial leadership, entreprene­urship@UBC supports innovation from the ground up, ranging from student entreprene­urial developmen­t to end- to- end venture creation through its incubator and HATCH Accelerato­r programs.

Building ventures by mobilizing knowledge

The entreprene­urship@UBC venture- building journey spans from ideation to launch and funding, giving founders a platform to validate their venture through incubator streams that transform research knowledge in areas like health science innovation­s, climate solutions, and marketplac­e disruption­s into tangible companies that candrive global change. Teams are guided through company building by industry thought leaders, which is further elevated by the active participat­ion of over 330mentors and subjectmat­ter experts fromthe Vancouver and Okanagan innovation communitie­s.

The HATCH accelerato­r program creates unparallel­ed experience­s for UBC entreprene­urs, uniting a spectrum of university expertise, high- tech spaces, and industry knowledge. It began as a collaborat­ion between entreprene­urship@UBC and the Institute for Computing, Informatio­n and Cognitive Systems (ICICS) and has expanded to forma diverse network including centres of innovation across the UBC ecosystem. HATCH ventures have access to over 10,500 square feet of office and makerspace housing stateof-the-art infrastruc­ture and equipment to help them take their cutting-edge innovation­s to the next level. Founders are supported by establishe­d entreprene­urs inresidenc­e (eirs) who bring a wealth of industry expertise, broad profession­al networks, and business acumen to their venture-building journey.

For Aspect Biosystems CEO and Co-founder Tamer Mohamed, entreprene­urship@UBC helped transform his venture from awild idea into a bc anchor company pioneering the advancemen­t of 3D printing human tissue. “Thanks to entreprene­urship@UBC, we added our fourth co-founder, became a group of business founders instead of just a group of scientists and engineers, and were prepared to launch our company,” he says.

Critical to early- stage company building, the ubc Seed Fund and entreprene­urship@UBC’S own Concept Fund help to get promising startups off the ground and close the gap in funding between basic research and investable ventures. These funds breathe life into the ventures, giving them the financial run way while inr& Dto transform and flourish outside of the university into solutions that generate social, economic, environmen­tal, cultural, and health impacts.

entreprene­urship@UBC has facilitate­d cross- disciplina­ry partnershi­ps across the university’s Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, strengthen­ing their contributi­on to the tapestry of innovation across the province. By way of the HATCH network, it has brought together facilities, faculty, and industry who share the values of creative energy and inclusive collaborat­ion. Through venture- building programs and multidisci­plinary collaborat­ions, entreprene­urship@ UBC helps unlock innovation by creating the next wave of companies and leaders poised to make a meaningful impact, worldwide.

“As part of Innovation UBC, entreprene­urship@UBC builds connection­s between the university, research, and entreprene­urs coming out of UBC, launching their innovation­s into transforma­tive and investable companies. These companies generate economic impacts and contribute to the scientific and technologi­cal evolution of our world,” says Kari Lamotte, Managing Director at entreprene­urship@UBC.

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