Grant Writing – The Commercialization Plan
Grant Writing – The Commercialization Plan Learn how to compose an outline and draft the content for a Commercialization Plan in a grant proposal. We will start with a discussion. First, we will listen to your idea to understand the core of your invention or discovery. We’ll then want to hear about the problem you […]
The Journey to Impact: A Passion for Helping AKI Patients
An interview with Steven C. Borkan, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine at BU, and Attending Physician at Boston Medical Center. The following discussion with Dr. Steven C. Broken took place at our BU Innovator of the Year Award event — where he explained his focus on treating acute kidney injury, his ideas on invention vs. […]
The Journey to Impact: Watch Your Language
Are you working on an idea to impact a customer, audience, or market? (Since we have policy people in the audience whose “market” is the government, let’s define “market” as the audience you wish to adopt your idea.) Whether you plan to start a company, license to a third party, or collaborate with the government […]
BU Innovator of the Year’s Advice for Aspiring Academic Entrepreneurs? Start by Listening
Dr. Selim Ünlü, Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ENG), was named 2021 BU Innovator of the Year for his pioneering work developing devices and technologies that help find security flaws in the construction of computer chips and detect viral pathogens in medical samples. Ünlü holds 18 patents and has helped launch three companies, all […]
The Lab to Market Transition: Lessons from Faculty, Students, and Research Staff
In February, the Office of Research hosted an event called The Lab to Market Transition: Lessons from Faculty, Students, and Other Research Staff. The event highlighted scenarios in which post grads spun out companies with the technology they worked on in their PI’s lab. We had four spinout guests, at different stages of maturity, with […]
Technology Disclosure Form
Share an Idea Don’t have time to submit a full disclosure? Not quite ready to take that step? Share an idea or reach out to our office using our quick form. Submit a Disclosure BU inventors are encouraged to submit a Technology Disclosure Form for each of their proprietary ideas or technologies. Completing this short […]
Journey to Impact: Advice and Entrepreneurship
An entrepreneur friend called me recently to ask for my advice. She started a company two years ago, on her own. It’s growing, fast. She needs cash to meet demand. She found a group of Angel investors, knowledgeable in her field and wanting to invest $XXX,000. They want YY% of the company, but she wants to give away only ZZ% of the company (where Z
The Journey to Impact: Equity Investors and Updates
This fall we launched a new program titled “Invasion of the Equity Investors.” I specifically named the investors “equity investors” to ensure there’s no mistake about the nature of the transaction in the offing. Equity investors (Angels and venture capitalists) purchase shares in your company in return for cash. The ‘”invasion” was chosen to attract attention, or perhaps make you smile. They are one source of funding. There are many, many additional and alternative forms of funding besides equity (click here for a posted presentation on the subject), but that’s a conversation for another day. We had three investors scheduled thus far this semester. One more will listen to pitches on November 4. We’ll be inviting more next semester.
Journey to Impact: New Resources, Events, and Opportunities
Here’s a misunderstood word: commercialization. The University of Pittsburgh offers a straightforward definition: “Commercialization is the process by which a new product or service is introduced into the general market.” That’s it. Too often, commercialization is misunderstood to mean “sales and marketing.” Those tasks are components of commercialization; they are not synonymous with the word. I suppose it’s because commerce is the root of commercialization so people’s minds go right to the transaction side of business (sales and marketing).
Want Wider Recognition for Your Idea? Ignition Awards Offer More Than Funding
Let’s start by making one thing clear: the Ignition Awards are not your average grant awards. In fact, we don’t even think of them as grants. Why not? Well, traditional grants provide funding; not funding in addition to training workshops, network-building, and practitioner feedback. Other grants are given to recipients to help finance promising ideas, but with little or no interaction with experts in the very fields where those ideas could take hold! And more conventional grants may help pay for your research, but they don’t get you any closer to understanding how your idea can make an impact in the world; how it might be commercialized.