SPARK-VT, an initiative that helps bring promising research discoveries to the marketplace piloted in 2012 by the UVM Department of Medicine, has been expanded to engage faculty across the University of Vermont, launching this week with a Call for Proposals to all UVM researchers.
David V. Rosowsky, UVM provost, and Dr. Richard Galbraith, vice president for research, are champions of the SPARK-VT program, which will accelerate the translation of new knowledge into tangible benefits to society.
“As one of a series of UVM initiatives focused on technology commercialization and clinical translation of research, SPARK-VT is helping the university create an exciting new culture of faculty entrepreneurship,” says Rosowsky.
Designed to facilitate the discovery-to-innovation-to-commercialization process, the program connects UVM faculty with leading experts from the biotech, pharmaceutical, business and legal fields and provides seed grant funding to move the best project ideas forward.
Dr. Polly Parsons, Amidon Chair of Medicine, modeled the UVM pilot program after the Stanford University School of Medicine’s SPARK program. Under the guidance of a project organizing committee -- including Mercedes Rincon, professor of medicine; Eric Gagnon, department administrator in the Department of Medicine; and other Medicine faculty -- SPARK-VT hosted two rounds of proposal presentations where a panel of industry experts supplied feedback to each presenter and the most promising projects were funded. The Department of Medicine funded two projects from the first round in May 2013; an expanded program in June 2014 funded four projects among proposals from Medicine as well as the Departments of Neurological Sciences and Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences.
A key element of the SPARK-VT program is a series of workshops that help researchers hone their ideas into viable proposals for clinical translation and commercialization. On Oct. 24, Stanford’s SPARK curriculum and program manager Emily Egeler was on the UVM campus to deliver the first in a series of monthly SPARK-VT workshops.
“We’re over the moon that UVM shares our commitment to the translation of discoveries into the clinic and marketplace,” says Egeler, who explained that Stanford’s SPARK program “makes money before it makes money” -- between $5 and $10 comes back to the university for every $1 spent. “Successes may take a long time,” she admits, “so it’s important to get as many ideas launched as possible.”
In addition to the UVM Office of the Provost and UVM Office of the Vice President for Research, collaborators in the university-wide initiative include the UVM Office of Technology Commercialization, as well as the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, and the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development.
To learn more about the SPARK initiative, visit www.uvm.edu/sparkvt