DECEMBER 2020

University of Arizona Center for Innovation at Oro Valley Opens Its Doors

The new UACI at Oro Valley is officially up and running and ready to support bioscience startups with the resources, programming, connections and mentorship needed for startups to thrive. The center features office, lab and meeting spaces. The incubator will also offer companies access to shared laboratory equipment including ultra-low freezer, biosafety cabinets and inverted fluorescence microscope. Startups will also be guided through UACI's 27-point roadmap for enterprise development designed to support bioscience discoveries and help translate them into marketable technologies. Establishing a biotech focused incubator like this fills a critical gap in building the existing cluster in Oro Valley and is pivotal in extending the reach of UArizona's world-class research and innovation far beyond our campus to benefit society at large.

 

Sylvan Source Wins Arizona Innovation Challenge

Congratulations to UACI startup Sylvan Source, for being named one of only ten early-stage innovators selected as the 2020 Arizona Innovation Challenge awardees. The tech companies selected represent the advanced manufacturing, cleantech, bioscience and software industries. Sylvan Source is a startup that has developed novel industrial water treatment technologies and is a UACI Sponsored Launch winner which was sponsored by the Town of Sahuarita and Freeport McMoRan.

 

Department of Energy American-Made Solar Prize Round 3 Challenge Winners 

As one of six power connectors for the American-Made Solar Challenge, UACI has has been working with ten startup teams for the American-Made Solar Prize Round 3 challenge. This competition is administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to accelerate and sustain American solar innovation. Two UACI startups, Maxout Renewables and Wattch Inc., won the challenge, each winning $500,000 cash plus $75,000 NREL vouchers to develop their innovations. 

 

UACI and Arizona FORGE Pilot Program 

The UACI has teamed up with Arizona FORGE on a pilot program to ensure a continuum of startup support services. This pilot program is a natural evolution in the growing innovation ecosystem being developed at the University of Arizona. The top startups who complete FORGE’s Advanced Entrepreneur Program, an 8-week program for early-stage entrepreneurs, have the opportunity to advance their businesses by entering the structured incubator program at UACI aimed at helping them launch their startup grow and scale. UACI works with multi-stage startups, therefore this model represents the next sequential step where people, programming and places help entrepreneurs take their companies from idea to market.

 

UACI Startup Reglagene Featured in Arizona Daily Star

David Wichner of The Arizona Daily Star recently showcased the UACI startup Reglagene, which is a biotech company that fights cancer by leveraging Quadruplex Master Switch Technology to create new medicines that regulate gene expression. This technology was developed at the University of Arizona, licensed through Tech Launch Arizona and is currently working through the UACI incubation program.  

 

New Mexico SBIR/STTR Innovation Summit 

UACI participated in the New Mexico SBIR/STTR Innovation Summit. The valuable information for small businesses shared in the summit can be found in the online keynote. The Summit brought together small businesses, federal program managers, defense representatives, experts and local organizations who have a vested interest in advancing innovation through the SBIR and STTR programs.

 

KOLD Highlights UACI Sponsored Launch Programs 

KOLD News 13 highlighted UACI's Sponsored Launch Fueled by R&A CPAs and how UACI's Sponsored Launch programs are helping local startups during the pandemic. Auxilium Technology Group LLC's Abraham Jalbout, PhD, who won the last Sponsored Launch, shared why startups should apply for the UACI Sponsored Launch program.  

 

Noontime Knowledge

Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at UArizona's Eller College of Management, Joe Broschak, PhD, virtually dropped by UACI to offer some noontime knowledge in a presentation titled Executive Summaries: A Window into Your Business Plan. Broschak joined the Eller College of Management in 2007 after teaching as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His areas of expertise include social capital and social embeddedness, managerial mobility and gender differences in careers, dynamics of inter-organizational relationships, organizational structure and organizational change and use of temporary and contract work arrangements.

 

AZ Big Media Highlights UACI startup Nanomoneo 

What's igniting Arizona's economy? AZ Big Media answered this question by highlighting several businesses around the state playing a part in Arizona’s economic progress. One key business included in the story was Nanomoneo, an up-and-coming biotech instrument company, which chose the UA Tech Park and its incubator UACI as their new home after a competitive, multi-state selection process. Nanomoneo's operations not only create new tech jobs here in the southwest, but also will account for an estimated $17 million economic impact to the region. 

 

Happy Holidays! 

The UACI team would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. Thank you to everyone who helped make this year at UACI such an unforgettable, pivotal year. May the New Year bring many more opportunities to collaborate and innovate.

 
 
January 6, 2021


DEPT of Energy SBIR/STTR Workshop Series

UACI is supporting the current round of Department of Energy (DOE) SBIRs/STTRs. In an 8-part workshop series, we will provide hands-on support from SBIR/STTR experts that focus on writing a proposal, data rights, evaluation criteria, registration process, and much more. Join us on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, from 11 am-12 pm MT for our third workshop, which will take a deep dive into the topic of data rights and the legal process for SBIRs/STTRs.

 

Searching for an experienced medical device or pharmaceutical sales professional to join a team and assist with business development efforts as a 1099 contractor. Healthy commissions for every signed purchase order or letter of intent obtained. Each purchase order would represent about $1600 in commission to the right person. Connections to OBGYN offices would be a major plus.

 

Searching for a PhD level engineer or scientist who is creative, innovative, thrives on technical challenges and is comfortable merging concepts from different technical disciplines to be part of the founding team, launching new instrumentation that will change how the world is seen.

 

#ReturnStronger

We are stronger together. Please know that the University of Arizona Center for Innovation and Tech Parks Arizona stands with you.



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The University of Arizona Center for Innovation (UACI) is a key component of Tech Parks Arizona which brings together university, industry and community to advance technology innovation. UACI is the University of Arizona's startup incubator network with outposts across the Southern Arizona region with a mission to grow scalable startup ventures that fuel the Arizona ecosystem.