AB-2664 funds support a UC-wide effort to broaden the university’s infrastructure and programs for bringing research innovations to the marketplace
With $2.2 million in state funding to expand its innovation and entrepreneurship efforts, UC Santa Cruz will launch a multi-faceted support program to help bring research innovations to the marketplace and spur economic development in the Santa Cruz area.
The Support Program for Long-term Innovation, Commercialization & Entrepreneurship (SPLICE) will include an incubator and an accelerator for start-up companies in Santa Cruz, a Silicon Valley incubator, an entrepreneurial training program for students, an internship program for arts students, and commercialization grants.
“We pulled together expertise from across the campus and the surrounding community to create a program that will provide experiential learning for students and support for entrepreneurs at different stages in the innovation cycle,” said Mohamed Abousalem, assistant vice chancellor for research, industry alliances and technology commercialization. “The diversity of the activities in our program is unique. This is not a standard innovation and entrepreneurship program.”
Several major components of SPLICE are focused on getting startup companies off the ground. The Startup Sandbox Incubator will provide wet-lab and office space, as well as training and mentoring, with a focus on the areas of biotechnology, health science, and agricultural technology. Ann Pace, senior director of research development for the UCSC Genomics Institute and co-leader of the incubator, said it will fill an unmet need of campus researchers for space where they can start companies.
“We get requests for this type of thing regularly,” she said. “There are incubators in the Bay Area that are oversubscribed, with wait lists. We know people want to live and work in Santa Cruz, so it seems like a great fit.”
Pace said the campus is looking at available spaces on the West Side of Santa Cruz to house the incubator. Also to be located on the West Side is Santa Cruz Accelerates, an accelerator led…