The University of Virginia is seeking $1 million in state funds to push new technologies off campus and into the community.
UVA's innovation office is slated to receive the money in the House's proposed budget to start an economic development accelerator in Charlottesville. The program would help advance student and faculty inventions from ideas on paper to commercial products.
"UVA can build all of the mechanisms we need to build in the ecosystem to push projects out into the market, but it's also critically important to have that pull. So, investing in community resources in central Virginia and throughout the commonwealth to help us encourage that pull of technologies out of the university is critically important," said Michael Straightiff, director of UVA Licensing & Ventures Group.
UVA gets 180 new invention ideas each year.
If the General Assembly approves the funding, UVA plans to open a facility where students and faculty can work with mentors and entrepreneurs to develop their projects.
