Business Innovation Center (BIC)

Your Value

Here at the BIC, we open our doors to all types of startups across a wide range of industries. When considering new tenants we look for exciting innovation, a hardworking team, and most importantly, a desire to engage with the BU community. BICsters hire student interns, collaborate with the esteemed BU faculty, host student capstone projects, participate in workshops and panels, and more.

In addition to access to the BU community, BICsters gain access to cubicles, offices, wet and dry lab space, and access to BU Core Facilities.

If you’re interested in becoming a BICster or continuing as a BICster, please view and fill out the following forms:

• BIC Tenant Contact Information
• Shared Lab Usage Agreement (as part of the prospective BICsters documents to fill out, or for the renewal or start of a BICster’s Premise License Agreement process)
• Affiliate Form (as part of the prospective BICsters documents to fill out, or for tenants whose lab access is expiring)

As a BICster, you have access to the following resources:

• Core Facilities
• Handshake
• Modern office and laboratory space, fully furnished with telephone and high-speed internet connections
• Fully permitted laboratories
• Options for Bio-Safety Level 2(BSL-2) space. (See Guidelines)
• A wide range of technical equipment and engineering resources to aid in rapid product development
• Conference rooms, kitchen, security, and custodial services
• Shared access to photonics laboratories and capital equipment with the Photonics Center
• Boston University Engineering library
• Conference and Catering Services
• Office of Environmental Health and Safety (handling and disposal of hazardous waste)
• Photonics Center conferences, symposia, guest lectures, and social and networking events
• Safe recycling location for battery, lightbulb, and electronics on the 1^st floor (see BU Sustainability for more information)

BU has many facilities on the Medical Campus and Charles River Campus that provide services, expertise, and instruments for high-quality research. Some labs are specific to their supporting groups; most are available on a fee-for-service basis to researchers both inside and outside the University.

Charles River Campus

• Animal Science Center
• Biomedical Engineering (BME) Core Facilities
• Center for Molecular Discovery Analytical Core (BU-CMD)
• Chemical Instrumentation Center
• Cognitive Neuroimaging Center
• The Design, Automation, Manufacturing, and Processes (DAMP) Lab
• Electronics Design Facility
• Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation
• Micro-CT Imaging Facility
• Neurophotonics Center
• Photonics Center Shared Facilities
• Optoelectronic Processing Facility
• Precision Measurement Laboratory
• FIB/TEM Facility (FTF)
• Materials Science (MSE) Core Facilities
• Proteomics & Imaging Core Facility
• Software & Application Innovation Lab (SAIL)
• Scientific Instrument Facility

Medical Campus

• Analytical Instrumentation Core
• Animal Science MED Campus Facility
• Biospecimen Archive Research Core
• Biostatistics & Epidemiology Data Analytics Center
• Boston Nutrition and Obesity Research Center Administrative Core
• Cellular Imaging Core
• Center for Clinical Translational Epidemiology & Comparative Effectiveness Research
• Clinical Data Warehouse for Research
• Collaborative Research Laboratory
• Confocal Microscope Facility
• Developer Core
• Flow Cytometry Core Facility
• Framingham Heart Study Service Center
• Good Manufacturing Practice Core Facility
• Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Core Facility
• Infrared Imaging Core
• Integrated Biomedical Imaging Suite (IBIS)
• IVIS Imaging Core
• Metabolic Phenotyping Core
• Microarray & Sequencing Resource Core Facility
• Molecular Genetics Core
• Proteomics Service Center
• Single Cell Sequencing Core
• Transmission Electron Microscope

View the BICsters’ Core Facilities posters or visit the Core Facilities page to learn more.

Engagement

Engagement with the BU community is an essential part of the BIC’s mission. As such, outreach to BU students is among our foremost priorities. Students may engage with the BIC through participation in events such as Thirsty Third Thursdays (TTT) and Practice Perfect Pitching (PPP) and by applying for jobs and internships through the BIC Handshake page. The BIC’s Handshake page serves as a centralized job board featuring job openings from all of our BIC tenants (aka BICsters). Don’t see a job that suits you? Find the general inquiry postings for each of our BICsters on the BIC handshake page to submit your resume and statement of interest directly to a BICster to be considered for future openings.

Student Organizations

The BIC has engaged in conversations with a number of student organizations at BU. We hope to build strong and lasting relationships with student organizations so that we may provide support and opportunities to the students in them.

Pursuing Research Funding

Innovation at BU could not exist without the researchers driving progress within our community. BICsters provide a new method of pursuing research funding here at BU. Through sponsored research, co-SPIR and STTR grants, and licensing of technology, the collaboration between BICsters and BU researchers is a part of the BIC’s core directive.

Read articles about our BICsters in action.

• A BU Spinoff’s Success Story: The Abridged Version
  • This article summarizes the success story of NanoView Biosciences.
• Matregenix Case Study
  • This article is about Matregenix, a former BICster (2019 – 2020), a company formed by a BU MBA with a PhD in Material Science. Read how Sherif took the company from technology to cash flow positive using several BU and his own resources.
• ADI Lab to Fab
  • This article is about Analog Devices, a current BICster (2020 – present). ADI is using the BIC for what they call their Lab to Fab model. Read the attached to understand how Azize is going about this.

Thirsty Third Thursday (“TTT time”)

Thirsty Third Thursday (“TTT time”) is a social gathering every third Thursday of the month in the Business Innovation Center (BIC) lobby (6th floor of the Photonics Center, 8 St Mary’s Street, Boston) from 4-6pm. The BIC is a BU facility designed to help ideas become innovations for both BIC tenant companies (“BICsters”) and BU researchers. Faculty, doctoral students, postdocs, BICsters and guests are invited to grab a bite to eat and chat.

TTT time is BU’s only social venue to talk about technology transfer, development and commercialization, network with colleagues, corporations, and investors. We invite guest speakers engaged in technology commercialization to give an informal two-minute introduction and then network with the audience.

Visit the TTT website to learn more.

Here are several of the links you’ll need to do business:

• BIC Tenant Contact Information
• Shared Lab Usage Agreement (as part of the prospective BICsters documents to fill out, or for the renewal or start of a BICster’s Premise License Agreement process)
• Affiliate Form (as part of the prospective BICsters documents to fill out, or for tenants whose lab access is expiring)
• Bio-Safety Level 2(BSL-2)
• Disclosure of Conflicts
• Laboratory Design Checklist
• Hazardous Material Survey and Equipment Inventory
• BIC Handshake page