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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

Research Park

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    News Partnerships & Acquisitions Research Park

    New AgTech Accelerator Launched in Champaign

    Wisconsin-based startup accelerator program gener8tor announced it’s launching two new programs in Champaign that are focused on innovation in the agriculture industry. gener8tor will bring its gBETA accelerator model to Champaign in a program called gBETA AgTech, which will offer early-stage startups a free, seven-week accelerator and a $25,000 investment. The first gBETA AgTech accelerator will begin this summer and is designed to help five young startups gain customer traction and improve their business models. gener8tor also announced it’s launching an annual gener8tor AgTech accelerator that will bring top agriculture-tech startups from across the world to Champaign for a 12-week accelerator program. The program will select five startups who will receive a $100,000 investment and connect with gener8tor’s network of mentors, corporate partners and investors. The startups will also receive office space from gener8tor. Both programs are currently accepting applications. The programs are being run in partnership with Champaign-based VC firm Serra Ventures. The accelerators are also backed by Agri-Fab, Fox Development, GEM Realty Capital, The UIUC Research Park, the University of Illinois and The Champaign County Economic Development Corporation. gener8tor, which is regularly ranked as one of the top accelerators in the U.S. by the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project, has expanded its programs to cities across the country in recent years, including Detroit, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Houston and Los Angeles. The new agtech programs represent the group’s first accelerators in the state of Illinois. “We wanted to design programs that combined the core competencies and network of our Champaign-based corporate partners with a frictionless investment model to attract the best startups from around the world,” Troy Vosseller, co-founder of gener8tor, said in a statement. Read the full article here.

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    Events Features News Research Park

    SBIR Road Tour to Make Champaign-Urbana Visit in June

    UPDATE: This event has been postponed until Thursday, October 22. More information is available on the SBIR Road Tour website https://www.sbirroadtour.com/. The U.S. Small Business Administration announced today the launch of its 17-state SBIR Road Tour, which includes a stop in Champaign-Urbana on June 3-4, hosted by University of Illinois Research Park at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The Road Tour will connect entrepreneurs working on advanced technology to one of the country’s largest source of early stage funding – the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. “SBA is focused on helping small businesses grow and expand. The $4 billion in federal early stage funding is often a critical piece to maturing an entrepreneur’s research idea into a product or service. The Road Tours bring the federal managers to the entrepreneur and target areas and individuals that are underrepresented when it comes to receiving federal R&D funding,” said SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza. “This tour reflects our continued commitment to ensure those innovators are aware of SBIR/STTR program resources.” This will be the sixth year of the SBIR Road Tour, led by the SBA’s Office of Investment and Innovation together with 11 participating federal agencies. More information, including a detailed agenda and registration, will be released in March. NATIONAL SBIR ROAD TOUR SCHEDULE 2020: The Midwest Tour will run from June 1-5, with stops in Omaha, Nebraska; St. Louis, Missouri; Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and Bloomington, Indiana. The Southeast Tour will run from April 13-17, with stops in Richmond, Virginia; Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina; Columbia, South Carolina; and Atlanta/Athens, Georgia. The Rockies Tour will run from August 10-14, with stops in Bozeman, Montana; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Laramie, Wyoming. Finally, the Central Southern Tour will run from November 2-6, with stops in Jackson, Mississippi; Shreveport, Louisiana; Dallas, Texas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Fayetteville, Arkansas. Small technology firms, innovators, scientists or researchers seeking more information on the SBIR Road Tour, including a schedule of stops and participating agencies should visit: https://www.sbirroadtour.com/. For more information about SBIR/STTR programs, please visit https://www.sbir.gov/. About SBIR/STTRSBA coordinates the SBIR/STTR programs, also known as America’s Seed Fund, which each year provides more than $3.7 billion in early stage seed capital totaling over 5,000 awards to small businesses. Eleven participating federal government agencies announce funding opportunities as either grants or contracts to address their research and development needs. Companies supported by the SBIR/STTR programs often generate some of the most important breakthroughs each year in the U.S.  Additional information about the programs, as well as past and current topics can be found at www.sbir.gov. About the U.S. Small Business AdministrationThe U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 and is a Cabinet-level agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation.  The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses, and recover from disasters.  Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, the SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. To learn more about SBA, visit www.sba.gov.

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    EnterpriseWorks Graduates News Research Park

    Revolution Medicines, EnterpriseWorks Graduate, Went Public

    Revolution Medicines is publicly traded as of February 12, 2020. The EnterpriseWorks graduate filed its initial public offering on January 17 for $100 million. According to Nasdaq on February 11, 2020, Revolution Medicines raised its proposed deal size to $231 million by offering over 10 million shares between $16 and $17. The company raised $238 million when the stock opened at $17 per share on February 12. It  is listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol RVMD. Revolution Medicines was founded at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign by researchers Mark Goldsmith, David Pompliano, and  Martin Burke. Burke was a professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign at the time of founding the company in 2015. In addition to his affiliations with the Beckman Institute, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, and the Biochemistry department, Burke is now the Associate Dean for Research and Professor at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. He serves as the scientific advisory board chairman for Revolution Medicines, while Goldsmith serves as the president, CEO and board director. Revolution Medicines is a “clinical-stage precision oncology company focused on developing novel targeted therapies to inhibit elusive frontier targets within notorious growth and survival pathways, with particular emphasis on RAS and mTOR signaling pathways.” The company graduated from EnterpriseWorks in 2015, and it announced in July 2019 that it had raised $100 million in series C financing to advance drugs aimed at “frontier targets” in cancer. Currently, Revolution Medicines has raised $232 million from multiple equity financing rounds.

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    EnterpriseWorks Media Mentions News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    AgTech Startup EarthSense Featured in New York Times

    EnterpriseWorks agtech startup EarthSense was featured in an article in the New York Times in its February 13 edition. In the article, co-founder Girish Chowdhary discussed EarthSense’s TerraSentia, a farm robot that uses advanced machine-learning skills to collect and report data in the fields. EarthSense was founded in 2016 by University of Illinois researchers and entrepreneurs Chinmay Soman and Girish Chowdhary.  Since their start, the company has developed an agricultural robotics and AI platform with three key applications: (1) developing the next generation of more productive and sustainable crops, (2) helping growers obtain actionable intelligence from their fields, and (3) managing problems like herbicide resistant weeds.

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    Features News Research Park

    Research Park 2019 Year in Review

    2019 was a great year for the University of Illinois Research Park. In 2019, employment in the Research Park grew, ground was broken for several development projects, and many tech startups graduated from the EnterpriseWorks incubator. Here is a glimpse of the Research Park 2019 Year in Review: Research Park has experienced significant employment growth in the past five years. In 2015, the number of employees at Research Park was at 1,574. In 2019, employment reached a record of nearly 2,200 employees including 875 student interns from multi-disciplines. Three new innovation centers joined the Research Park in 2019. BP, Procter  & Gamble, and Motorola Solutions opened their doors at the Park to advance their technology and engage with the campus community. In addition to the new additions to the Research Park, several startups graduated from EnterpriseWorks. Most of these companies stayed local to the Champaign-Urbana area. In fact, 70% of EnterpriseWorks graduates remain in the State of Illinois. In 2019, three projects broke ground in the Research Park. The Illinois Conference Center expansion, the addition of a Greenhouse to support the “Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency” (RIPE) project, and the construction of a multi-tenant building on Fourth Street are in the works with expected completion dates in 2020. On July 1, the governance of the Research Park was transferred from the U of I system to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. The scope of the Research Park will focus solely on the Urbana-Champaign campus. Throughout 2019, the Research Park hosted over 200 events including the AgTech and Big Data Summits, Women in Tech luncheons, entrepreneurial and intern workshops, and networking and recruiting events. 2019 Year in Review

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    EnterpriseWorks News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    EarthSense selected for John Deere Startup Collaborator program

    EarthSense, a startup located at the EnterpriseWorks incubator, was selected to participate in John Deere‘s 2020 Startup Collaborator program.  This program was started in 2019 to help strengthen Deere’s relationship with startup companies with technology that’s proven beneficial to John Deere customers. EarthSense was one of four companies chosen for this year’s program. John Deere selects startup companies who are transforming agriculture with their technology. The companies selected for the 2020 Startup Collaborator program include: DataFarm – A Brazilian company building digital tools to recommend climate-smart agricultural practices to optimize farmers’ return on investment FaunaPhotonics – A company from Denmark building technology for real-time pest detection to ensure sustainable crop management and improve tools for pest control. Fieldin – An Israeli company working on data management tools for specialty crops EarthSense – A company from Champaign, IL building novel sensing methods to improve in-field data collection EarthSense was founded in 2016 by Chinmay Soman and Girish Chowdhary. The company develops ultracompact autonomous robots that use machine vision and machine learning to collect and convert field data into useful information. Their first robot, TerraSentia, is revolutionizing agriculture. John Deere’s Technology Innovation Center is located at the University of Illinois Research Park. The Research Park provides an collaborative space for startups and corporations, like EarthSense and John Deere, to collide.

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    News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    Research Park Companies Made a Splash at CES

    Corporations with innovation centers at the University of Illinois Research Park made a splash (no pun intended, Brunswick Corporation) at CES 2020, and we were there to capture it. Members of the Brunswick I-JET intern team, under the leadership of site director Troy Kollmann, guided visitors through various AR and AI tools built at Research Park. Kollmann was quoted about the AI technology in The Wall Street Journal. AARP Tech Nest site director Miranda Kemp showcased a prototype for an AR tool that helps older adults age in place, by making their homes safer and easier to manage. Kemp pitched the idea as part of an internal company hackathon and led its development. It’s not every day a John Deere sprayer shows up in Las Vegas. That’s exactly what was on the CES floor, with some of the company’s best technologists – including former John Deere Technology Innovation Center site director Julian Sanchez – to show the self-driving, remote sensing, GPS, precision imaging, machine learning enabled machine. It is great to have a strong Illinois contingent at CES, including University of Illinois Research Park’s Laura Frerichs and Laura Weisskopf Bleill , NCSA’s Brendan McGinty and Neil Andrews, and Katheryne Rehberg from the Office of Corporate Relations.

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    Community Events News Research Park

    Illinois Conference Center Expansion Celebrated with Groundbreaking Ceremony

    Representatives from campus and community gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Illinois Conference Center expansion on Monday, Nov. 25. The Conference Center expansion will add 32,500 square feet to the facility, nearly doubling its size. The $13 million project will include a 12,500 square foot exhibit hall and add roughly 140 parking spaces. The expansion will provide the campus and community with a dynamic event space that can hold more than 600 attendees at one time. The building is scheduled to be completed in September of 2020. “The expansion of the Illinois Conference Center is the result of the university’s commitment to serve our students, staff, faculty, and the Champagin-Urbana community,” said Danita M. B. Young, Ph.D., Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.  “The expanded Conference Center will serve as a gathering, learning, and networking space for a larger number of patrons than we have ever been able to engage with previously. The new modern facility will provide students with the opportunity to display and discuss what they are learning in classrooms and labs, gain access to expert speakers, and discover chances to expand their knowledge, thanks to the access the larger conference space will provide.” Located adjacent to the I-Hotel, the Conference Center has been a fixture in Champaign-Urbana since 2008. A public-private partnership, the Conference Center is owned and operated by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, while the hotel is owned and managed privately. “The first exposure many people have with the Research Park is the iHotel and Conference Center, which makes it an important part of our outreach,” Research Park executive director Laura Frerichs said. “In addition to hosting companies and organizations for collaboration, conferences, and events, it is a place that bridges the university and the community.” Currently the Illinois Conference Center hosts over 3000 events per year, and there are already 2000 on the books for 2020. The project addresses the concern that the community has been unable  to cater to large conferences of 700+, including meetings of interest to Illinois faculty as well as meetings for Illinois-based associations and business. “To this point we’ve been selling a concept,” said Jayne DeLuce, President and CEO of Visit Champaign County. “After today it’s a reality. We are ready to bring in more and more business.” The project is being constructed by Fox/Atkins Development, the development partner of the University of Illinois Research Park. This story was featured in the News Gazette. Read their coverage here.

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    EnterpriseWorks News Research Park

    Susan Martinis Named Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Research

    On November 7, 2019, Chancellor Robert J. Jones announced that Susan Martinis accepted the offer to become the vice chancellor for research and innovation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Martinis was appointed as interim vice chancellor for research in September 2017. According to Chancellor Jones, “Since taking on the role, Dr. Martinis has provided stellar performance, collegiality, creativity and agility in leading some of the most complex and pioneering activities in the Urbana-Champaign research enterprise. Her accomplishments during this period are impressive, and the addition of ‘innovation’ to the VCR title reflects the breadth of her portfolio and scope of her impact.” Further accomplishments include the transition of the Research Park and EnterpriseWorks back to the Urbana-Champaign campus and supporting the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities as it moves towards IBHE-approved institute status. Additionally, The Cancer Center at Illinois and the Center for Social and Behavioral Sciences became the 8th and 9th university-wide research centers during Dr. Martinis’ time as interim vice chancellor. EnterpriseWorks and the Research Park thank Dr. Martinis for her support and applaud her for her extensive work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For more information, view the Illinois News Bureau article here.

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    Events News Partnerships & Acquisitions Research Park

    Greenhouse Groundbreaking at the University of Illinois Research Park

    Representatives from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation broke ground Wednesday, October 23 on a new, state-of-the-art greenhouse in the Research Park. The planned greenhouse will support a research project, “Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency” (RIPE) for sustainable increases in crop yield, led by Illinois researchers Steve Long and Don Ort. RIPE is funded by the Gates Foundation, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, and the UK Government’s Department for International Development.     The greenhouse will be a modern plant phenotyping facility and joins a growing agtech cluster in the Research Park that includes major global seed companies, equipment manufacturers, retailers, and bioprocessing leaders. “The RIPE project is a spectacular example of the way Illinois is leading forward to sustainably feed our growing global population. Advancements in the digital agriculture space, including this phenotyping facility and our new Center for Digital Agriculture, are needed to make that goal a reality. We’re grateful to the Gates Foundation, as well as Drs. Long and Ort, for their commitment,” said Kim Kidwell, Dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois.     Located on Fourth Street, just south of St. Mary’s Road, the building will be owned by the University of Illinois and operated by the College of ACES in collaboration with the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. Fox/Atkins Development will construct the greenhouse, with September 2020 as the projected completion date.

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