Duke-NUS Medical School launches LIVE Ventures, a $20 million incubator to help commercialise academic research projects and translate scientific innovations into clinical applications.
The incubator aims to provide academic innovators with expertise and resources from the public and private sectors, including pharmaceutical companies, market data researchers, investors, and industry experts, to assess product-market fit for commercialization of their projects.
An investment advisory board has been established to identify the experience of experts who can provide advice on product commercialization. The initiative will begin with a pilot project focused on chronic inflammatory diseases.
LIVE Ventures will provide up to $500,000 to high-potential Duke scientists for academic research projects through a $20 million program that will support 20 Duke research projects over the next five years.
“As an incubator, LIVE Ventures aims to provide industry expertise, mentorship and funding to help transform scientific discoveries into actionable commercial opportunities and create startups with the potential to thrive. In addition to supporting scientists to translate their research into new clinical solutions, LIVE Ventures will foster a culture of entrepreneurship within academia, ultimately benefiting patients around the world,” Dr. Rainny Xie, Director of LIVE Ventures at Duke-NUS, said in a statement.
The bigger trend
Many universities offer accelerator programs to support the development and commercialization of medical technologies.
Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab ventures), a division of Harvard University, was founded in 2011. The lab provides Harvard innovators with advice, mentorship, resources, and programming support to help them build and commercialize their products.
MIT Hacking Medicine focuses on innovation through workshops, incubator programs, and hackathons, while the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund program provides startup capital and mentorship to student-created startups.
The Pennsylvania Health Tech Accelerator is an initiative that brings together faculty, researchers, and students to accelerate the development and commercialization of health technologies and medical devices.
