Category: Illinois
The Chicago Technology Park exists as part of the larger Illinois Medical District to provide a home to the many businesses generated or attracted by the research and care provided through the District. The Research Center is the Technology Park’s business incubator where young companies and their cohort of partners may build businesses around innovation. The biotech incubator supports entrepreneurs with a network of consortia to fund and direct growth for success.
CHAMPAIGN, Illinois (Oct. 22, 2009)—Abbott, the global health care company devoted to discovering new medicines, new technologies, and new ways to manage health, today celebrated the dedication of its new research facility at the Research Park on the University of Illinois campus.
The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago was recently awarded $4.5M for refurbishing an existing building in the IIT University Technology Park (UTP) to be used as a business incubator. The September 15, 2009 Daily Herald article explains that the federal funds for the renovation will come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
In addition to the newly planned incubator, IIT operates a number of entrepreneurial and workforce training programs in cooperation with the IIT Office of Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property. The Interprofessional Projects Program (IPRO) pairs students with mentors to solve real world problems with an entrepreneurial focus. The Jules F. Knapp Entrepreneurship Center (KEP) assists high technology start-up formation and business planning for technology based ventures. These programs couple with the Incubator at IIT-UTP which just opened this year to provide research and development space as well as business assistance for early stage enterprises.
BioTech Circle (BTC) is a resource for people interested in staying current with biotech information.
The archives date back to 2003 and include scientific articles from primary literature, patents and other articles of a relevant nature. The BioTech Circle website is at www.techmanage.net, the site is organized by Joanne Gucwa and her partner Kazumi Lino. They developed the site in 2001 when they realized the amount of information being generated in the field of bioscience; they decided to make their solution available on the Internet. In addition to the resources already mentioned they offer a variety of professional services in the field of information technology.
EnterpriseWorks is a business incubator located on the grounds of the Research Park at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign focused on supporting the commercialization of research at the University. The Research Park’s website http://researchpark.illinois.edu describes EnterpriseWorks as a 43,000 sq ft facility that houses 24 wet labs, access to shared resources and ample office space. In addition the incubator has a café where the StartUp Café seminar series takes place, also EnterpriseWorks has conference rooms with state of the art presentation equipment and a server co-location facility.
On the website the criteria for rental applicants is listed. EntrpriseWorks requires the following of an applicant to gain admittance: they must be an incorporated for-profit company with a valid tax ID; they must be at an early stage of development and have obvious market potential; the applicant should be affiliated with the University; the applicant should have both technical experience in their chosen discipline as well as team management experience; the company must be solvent and able to meet their financial demands as well as be able to achieve the goals of their business plan.
In addition to those requirements the Application for Tenancy that is available on the website has the following guidelines: the business must have a real need for incubation at EnterpriseWorks; the company must be technology based; and the principals must be well-qualified. On top of that, companies requesting tenancy must submit a business plan. A company requesting tenancy should have a clear vision for the company’s growth. Ideally the business plan should outline what the company will offer and their market analysis, detailing management, financial status and goals for the company; and it should have a clear analysis of milestones and how the company will benefit from incubation at EnterpriseWorks. The details are stated in the application, and the business plan is reviewed by EnterpriseWorks.
Research Park at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign http://researchpark.illinois.edu
Photo credits: EnterpriseWorks
