Innovate@UIC

Innovate@UIC is a coordinated suite of services designed to foster, protect, accelerate and fund early stage innovation. Our mission is to create a supportive environment for increasing the impact of science and technology discoveries in our community. We help innovators and entrepreneurs identify a path to bring their discoveries to the marketplace, understanding the nuances of what it takes to commercialize, including how to protect intellectual property, start and fund a new venture, and learn about the steps it may take to scale up an idea. Innovate@UIC supports commercialization of research that may require a long development lifecycle, new forms of capital and proper lab space to fully come to fruition. Innovate@UIC coordinates UIC’s Office of Technology Management, IllinoisVENTURES and EnterpriseWorks Chicago to provide resources for early stage assessments of market potential. Through a series of workshops, mentorship, networking opportunities, licensing, and funding services, Innovate@UIC provides a mechanism to validate the market feasibility of your idea and prepare you for success beyond the seed and start-up stage.