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Get to Know Drexel Applied Innovation

Drexel Applied Innovation Logo with the Drexel Dragon logo

August 1, 2023

Drexel Applied Innovation offers resources to help Drexel students expand the impact of their research through comprehensive technology transfer services.

Drexel Applied Innovation provides translational research funding to help advance Drexel research with commercial potential, gap funding to stimulate organic startup formation around Drexel’s research strengths and investment capital for early-stage Drexel student and tech transfer startups to accelerate capital formation and to build great companies.

Through Drexel Applied Innovation, Drexel discoveries are protected through patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets and develop timely and high-quality contracts and agreements to support tech transfer and industry sponsored research. Industry relationships are identified and cultivated based on Applied Innovation’s portfolio of licensable technologies. Opportunities are created for the Drexel research community to gain insight into industry’s unmet needs and innovation challenges which can be incorporated into current and future research, and future startup founders are trained and supported.

Drexel Applied Innovation aims to:

  • PROTECT Drexel innovation and innovators through IP development and high-quality license agreements
  • CONNECT Drexel IP and their inventors to industry’s unmet needs and innovation challenges through industry engagement
  • PROMOTE impact-oriented mindset within the Drexel research enterprise, offering startup support and funding programs

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NSF I-Corps

NSF I-Corps is an immersive, experiential program which allows Drexel researchers, postdocs, graduate students, and the members of their lab to explore the question: "Given my innovation, who would care about it the most, why, and by how much." The NSF I-Corps creates opportunities for members of the Drexel research community to gain insight into industry’s unmet needs and innovation challenges which can be incorporated into current and future research. It is applicable to a wide variety of research-based innovations, and prior NSF funding is NOT required!

I-Corps helps Drexel researches with future grant proposals and broader impacts, expands industry contacts, connects researchers with at least 100 industry companies and stakeholders, explores forming a startup, gives researchers access to Drexel Express Startup License, creates a startup and investor friendly licensing agreement with pre-set terms to eliminate barriers and open the doors for commercialization pathways, and more!

Contact applied_innovation@drexel.edu for more information.

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Drexel Innovation Fund

The Drexel University Innovation Fund is an exciting new initiative for early-stage Drexel student and postgraduate-led startups, as well as startups founded to commercialize the results of scientific research being developed at Drexel.

Receive $150,000 to accelerate your entrepreneurial endeavor and shorten the time to the first round of professional investor capital with the Drexel University Innovation Fund! The University aspires to play the role of a friends and family investor by being the first money in with an investment of $150,000 per startup and up to four startups per year.

Learn More

Drexel Innovation Fund: How It Works - Hands-On Venture Capital Learning Experience for Students; Invests in Drexel Innovators and Technology Addressing the Worlds Most Pressing Challenges; Evergreen fund reinvests all returns into future startups

​Article by Rachel Mroz