The Innovation Institute’s licensing and intellectual property professionals are critical to our mission of helping others achieve impact for their ideas and discoveries. They are typically the first contact that Pitt faculty, staff and students have with the Innovation Institute. Many of them have advanced degrees in science, business or law, and several have multiple such degrees.
The University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Medical Innovation (CMI) recently awarded grants totaling $165,000 to eight research groups through its Pilot Funding Program for Early Stage Medical Technology Research and Development. CMI, a University Center housed in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering (SSOE), supports applied technology projects in the early stages of development with “kickstart” funding toward the goal of transitioning the research to clinical adoption. CMI also educates engineering students in medical product design and development through participation in real-world projects.
The Innovation Institute partners with many organizations across Pitt to advance innovation and entrepreneurship. The Office of Economic Partnerships (OEP) is our sister organization involved in engaging industry and other external stakeholders with the University. In this guest post, the OEP manager of partnerships Paul-Valentin Pitou recounts his attendance last month at the JP Morgan Health care Conference in San Francisco, and the many ways external stakeholders can partner with Pitt.
One of the ways Pitt stimulates its innovation ecosystem is by creating thematic challenges that encourage Pitt faculty, students and staff to develop solutions in those areas that can make an impact in the world. Recent challenges have included the Performance Innovation Tournament that called for ideas for improving human performance, and the Philips Grand Challenge, sponsored by the sleep and respiratory care division of Philips Healthcare. Last year’s Pitt Innovation Challenge, sponsored by the university’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), picked up on the theme of human performance and awarded $475,000 last September to innovations ranging from a mobile app to prevent falls to a new ultrasound technique to immediately diagnose tendon damage in sports injuries.
Today, December 12, marks the 38th anniversary of the Bayh-Dole Act, which helped create the field of university technology transfer. Helping Pitt innovators translate lab discoveries at Pitt into products and services that make the world a better place and generate economic development opportunities lies at the heart of the Innovation Institute’s mission.