OVPR works with entities such as the State (Agency of Commerce and Community Development) and the City of Burlington Mayor’s Office, the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, and in conjunction with the Offices of the President and Provost, the OVPR is progressively growing and burnishing UVM’s reputation as a leader, connector, funder, and provider of faculty expertise, mentorship, and prototyping/incubation/acceleration in those entrepreneurial and business ecosystems.

The following are some of the specific initiatives managed by the OVPR. They are presented initially as programs to support primarily entrepreneurship, progressing ultimately to programs supporting more established businesses.

To find out more about these UVM programs, contact Dan Harvey, UVM OVPR Director of Operations, at Dan.Harvey@uvm.edu, 802-656-4566, or Andrea Elledge, UVM OVPR Engagement Officer, at aelledge@uvm.edu, 802-656-8867.

A novel and unique program offered by UVM is the Business/Faculty Concierge Service.

Businesses often run across technical/scientific problems that can’t be satisfactorily addressed by in-house staff. Under this program, a business with a problem such as this can contact the OVPR with a description of the problem, and the OVPR will identify one or more faculty members that have great depth and experience in the science that underlies the problem. If the timing and area of expertise is appropriate, and the faculty member is interested, they will make themselves available for an initial consultation.

This is a new service that has been utilized once “in the field” and was found to be of considerable support and service to the business in question.

To learn more about the concierge service program contact Dan Harvey, UVM OVPR Director of Operations, at Dan.Harvey@uvm.edu, 802-656-4566, or the Office of Engagement.

The OVPR makes small but impactful investments in many local and regional non-profits, working diligently to improve recent efforts to improve the ability of start-up companies to survive and scale. They include:

• BTV Ignite (local chapter of US Ignite)
  US Ignite is an NSF-funded program to grow the gig economy. The City of Burlington, UVM, and many other local stakeholders manage BTV Ignite.
• Catamount Innovation Fund
  This UVM student-run organization provides venture capital and mentoring services to UVM student-run companies.
• "Design It/Pitch It/Fab It" competitions
  The OVPR funds three separate pitch competitions that all lead to free professional prototyping services ($5,000 in materials, consultation and prototyping) from UVM’s Instrumentation and Modeling Facility for each of the three winning pitches.
• Generator (Burlington’s not-for-profit maker space)
  In addition to helping start Generator with staff and funding contributions, the OVPR provides 50 free UVM student memberships per year at Generator.
• VCET (Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies)
  Through active coaching, mentorship, coworking spaces, community events, investment, and smart introductions, VCET serves entrepreneurs and companies from start to scale.

We also make smaller contributions to: Vermont Women’s Fund, Launch-VT and Collegiate Launch-VT, IoT Conduit, Vermont Technology Alliance, Vermont Community Foundation, Innovation Week and the Investor’s Summit, Design for America, Code for BTV Brigade, Big Heavy World, Governor’s Institutes of Vermont, UVM Postdoctoral Association, and the Champlain Mini-Maker Faire.

This annual event, organized through UVM Innovations (which is charged with intellectual property strategy, protection, and commercialization of UVM discoveries), honors faculty and staff inventors for their diverse research across all disciplines, as well as provides roundtable discussions for budding entrepreneurs.

This year there were 11 U.S. Patents issued representing 37 inventors across the University. In addition to the Patent awards, there were 4 UVM License awards and 2 Hall of Fame awards.

After the awards ceremony, a keynote address is given which addresses a specific aspect of translating research to market. This year’s keynote was presented by Kyle Clark, founder of Beta Technologies. I2V concludes with interactive roundtable sessions covering topics ranging from “Patents101” to “Finding the Money” to “Scaling Up Your Business in Vermont.” Interest in this event has steadily grown over the years, often maxing out attendance.

To learn more, visit Invention 2 Venture (I2V) Conference.

The OVPR staff has created a web-based platform called the Mentoring Network to help beginning entrepreneurs in Vermont connect seamlessly with proven mentors who will share their experience and wisdom. There are currently 54 mentors (many of whom are UVM alumni) signed up and ready to share their experience and expertise.

Our mentoring areas include: business analysis, logistics and operations; business development; career development; client relations; computer programing, IT support and web development; customer discovery; human resources, insurance, recruiting, training and development, and workers compensation; legal, copyrights, licenses and patents; management of non-profit or for-profit; market analysis and pricing; networking; pitching and pitch decks; promotion and public relations; purchasing, sales and supply chain; real estate; and technology commercialization.

For more information, visit the Mentoring Network.

NSF I-Corps gives researchers the opportunity to explore the application of an entrepreneurial mindset to their existing expert technical and scientific knowledge, with the goal of translating new technologies to goods and services developed for market.

The Upstate New York I-Corps Node extended an invitation to The University of Vermont to offer the I-Corps short course to Vermont entrepreneurs in 2018. The core institutions including Cornell University, University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of Technology combine the experience of the nation’s top university R&D region with the entrepreneurial knowledge of experienced mentors and faculty. The Node acts as a hub for commercialization training in the Northeast, connecting skilled researchers to valuable resources through national and regional I-Corps programming.

In the free, two-week I-Corps short course, STEM field researchers and student entrepreneurs learn how to “get out of the building” and learn from potential customers. Their goal is to determine if they are solving a real-world problem with a sizeable market opportunity (i.e., will anyone want to buy their product).

In addition to providing entrepreneurial training, this program helps researchers identify new ways to apply their current or future research to solve real-life challenges and learn about progressing their ideas with the help of additional NSF I-Corps and other entrepreneur programming.

To learn more about I-Corp, visit UNY I-Corps.

At UVM, we’re cultivating top talent and providing a rich academic and experiential environment where students become creative, capable citizens of the world. Our students are known for their dedication to making a difference, and they bring that passion to their careers and communities.

Each year, we host hundreds of employers on campus through job and internship fairs, spotlight events, and tabling opportunities. Whether you’re seeking interns, part-time workers, or full-time employees, we’ll help you tailor your approach based on your unique recruiting needs.

Learn more about your options for recruiting at UVM and get started today by connecting with us on Handshake, UVM’s comprehensive recruiting platform.

The federal SBIR/STTR programs, known as “America’s Seed Fund,” are set-aside programs to help small businesses develop new technologies and facilitate the commercialization of innovation. Eleven (11) federal agencies participate in these programs and award $2.5 billion each year in competitive grants and contracts to small businesses.

The SBIR/STTR programs are attractive because they can provide seed funding for early-stage ideas that may still be high risk. They are also attractive because they are not a loan (i.e., no repayment is required), and do not require a stake in equity. However, SBIR/STTR funding can often be leveraged to attract follow-on funding and venture capital.

Seventeen percent (17%) of awards are made to first-time applicants, and the average company size is 9 employees (78% of awardees have 50 or less employees). Notably, colleges and universities are frequent partners on successful SBIR and STTR awards. Nearly 50% of SBIRs and 95% of STTRs have university involvement.

Partnering with faculty at the University of Vermont, for example, can boost a business's chances of success by providing access to facilities, resources, and research instrumentation, and the addition of recognized scientific/academic expertise can add credibility to a proposal.

For more information and online tutorials, visit SBIR/STTR.

As the breadth and magnitude of our research grows, we seek to provide opportunities for our faculty and students to successfully bring innovations to market and launch new companies. We believe this is critical to our success as a research university and in fulfilling our mission as a land grant university.

With a total annual budget of $200,000, our two programs — Pre-SPARK and SPARK — bring the experience and insight of a panel of distinguished and successful entrepreneurs to the critical evaluation of promising, innovative applications of new knowledge.

• Pre-SPARK assists UVM innovators with prototypes or preliminary commercial feasibility studies to improve the probability of developing a business plan, attracting additional funding and market interest. Funds can be used prior to patent filing to create more robust intellectual property.
• SPARK assists university innovators with validation of prototypes and other proof-of-principle work, refinement of business plans, and increases the readiness and potential of innovations for the next stages of investment and commercialization.

For more information, visit SPARK-VT.

Created to foster faculty interactions with industry and businesses, this program seeks to address the needs of businesses by partnering them with the expertise of UVM faculty members and graduate students or postdoctoral research associates.

Specifically, UVM faculty members identify industries or businesses with which to pursue areas of intellectual and/or commercial opportunities of mutual interest to both the industry partner and the faculty member. The faculty member (through this funding mechanism) and the commercial partner are expected to co-fund a portion of a doctoral-level graduate student or postdoctoral research associate. This individual will work on a project specific to the industry partner’s identified needs, under the guidance of the faculty member and in full compliance with governing laws and UVM policies and procedures.

To learn more, visit UVM Industry Fellowship Program.

This competitive program ($100,000 per year, funded by the State of Vermont) was created to help steward University of Vermont faculty discoveries through the commercialization process, thereby promoting an innovation ecosystem and economic development in Vermont and beyond.

Funds are used to accelerate commercialization of UVM-derived technology and to enhance the development of high-technology business and next-generation employment opportunities throughout Vermont.

For more information, visit UVMVentures Fund.