Drexel Applied Innovation Milestones
As the University’s tech transfer office, Drexel Applied Innovation’s mission is to expand the impact of Drexel research. FY24 was a year of continued focus for the team around three functions of academic tech transfer - Intellectual Property & Agreements, Industry Engagement and Entrepreneurial Advancement.
For FY24, Drexel Applied Innovation executed 14 licenses, was issued 33 US patents, supported 49 invention disclosures, and generated $776K in revenue. They also continued to drive increases in faculty and research engagement, to create synergies through coordination and collaboration, and to enable scale through enhanced team processes.
Faculty and Research Engagement
Drexel Applied Innovation appreciates the opportunities given to their team to participate in research events and committees with faculty and academic leadership as well as outside industry partners who are engaging with Drexel. Through these interactions, they are not only able to communicate to faculty and companies about what they do but learn where and how they can best assist them in their innovation endeavors.
In FY24, Drexel continued to provide outreach and services as a regional partner within the NSF I-Corps Hub Northeast Region to help deliver entrepreneurial training for faculty, postdocs, and graduate students. I-Corps is a nationally recognized program that can help Drexel innovators increase the competitiveness of research proposals, find opportunities for industry collaboration and funding, and explore the formation of a startup company. Through support from Applied Innovation team members and key collaborators including Drexel’s I-Corps Faculty Lead, Dr. Caroline Schauer, Drexel was able to meet or exceed commitments to NSF again this year, with 18 teams trained in regional cohorts through programs led by Drexel and other regional partners like Princeton.
Drexel Applied Innovation also held two successful cohorts of the Drexel University Innovation Fund (DUIF), which invests in early-stage student, alumni, and tech transfer startups coming out of Drexel. DUIF investment of $150,000 per startup as a “family and friends investor” fills an early-stage gap before most professional capital would be available. In its first cohort, Drexel invested in two promising startups, SusMaX, a lightweight aggregate construction material startup, and GrowFlux, an agricultural lighting technology company. In its second cohort this past year, Drexel made commitments to invest in three additional companies - AER Cosmetics, a sustainable cosmetics brand; 1DNano, a nanomaterial cleantech company; and MXene, Inc., a company focused on the commercialization of nanomaterials called MXenes. The Fund portfolio now includes three new material startups that grew out of research innovations first discovered in Drexel labs.
In FY24, the Industry Engagement team continued to make connections for Drexel faculty members to outside companies and funding platforms to explore potential research and licensing collaboration. The team reached over 700 companies through targeted marketing campaigns featuring Drexel innovators and intellectual property assets. They were also key collaborators from the research side participating in campus visits from current Drexel industry partners to expand the possibilities for potential sponsored research.
Coordination and Collaboration
FY24 was a year of continued partnerships to support innovation. The Charles D. Close School for Entrepreneurship and Drexel Applied Innovation continued to work together on the “Venture Capital Experience” course started last year with the launch of the Drexel University Innovation Fund. In this hands-on learning experience, Drexel students meet startup company finalists and work with the Fund’s Investment Advisory Committee to review potential investments. The Applied Innovation team also collaborated with Close on review processes for student entrepreneurs in the Drexel Startups Fund.
The Drexel Applied Innovation team also continued to work with the Coulter Translational Research Program on translational research efforts which have the potential to improve patient care. The team was also pleased to collaborate with the Graduate College in sponsoring the new “Excellence in Expanding the Impact of Research” award. This was awarded to a PhD student in Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics in the Drexel College of Medicine.
Learn More about the Research Excellence awards
Transparency for Scale
In FY24, as part of the Office of Research and Innovation’s Clarity Project, Drexel Applied Innovation implemented new processes for IP development and marketing campaigns as weekly meetings. This helped drive greater synergy and impacts such as a higher number of industry marketing campaigns through expanded involvement from licensing managers.
The Drexel Applied Innovation team is driven by a commitment to serve its research community innovators, partners, and collaborators. Looking ahead given recent changes as part of the university’s efforts around academic transformation and financial resilience, they look forward to providing excellence in core tech transfer areas such as intellectual property protection and industry engagement, while continuing to foster support for entrepreneurial endeavors through collaborations across campus and the regional innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.