January 4, 2010

Carey Business School plans tech commercialization program

Starting in February, the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School will be offering at the university’s Montgomery County Campus a new technology commercialization program titled Innovate!

Funded by a National Science Foundation grant to Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Innovate! is a 12-month program led by successful serial entrepreneurs that will take a class of 15 business professionals and 15 postdoctoral fellows through evaluation of a technology’s commercial viability, preparation of a business case based on the technology and launch of the business. The businesses will be based on technology from the National Institutes of Health, Johns Hopkins, the University System of Maryland and other research institutions and federal agencies.

“The Innovate! program is perfect for professionals who have thought about starting their own technology company and are looking for a supportive, structured environment to help make it happen,” said Yash Gupta, dean of the Carey Business School.

Elaine Amir, executive director of the Montgomery County Campus, said, “We’re extremely excited to have the Innovate! program on our campus because it fits so well with the county’s economic development goals. The county recently released its Biosciences Task Force report, and one of its five key objectives was to ‘enhance the environment for entrepreneurship and the creation of new life sciences companies,’ ” she said. “It’s great that Johns Hopkins can help advance that goal.”

Innovate! is based on the ACTiVATE program at UMBC, which has led to the formation of more than 25 companies since its inception in 2005. Partners for Innovate! include Rockville Economic Development, the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development and NIH.

An information session about the program will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 7, in Gilchrist Hall on the Montgomery County Campus. To attend, contact Robin Ferrier at 301-315-2896 or rferrier@jhu.edu.