Dow is a global materials science company that develops innovative and sustainable solutions for various industries, including packaging, infrastructure, and consumer goods.
Photon Queue nathan@photonqueue.com 60 Hazelwood Dr, Champaign, IL Photon Queue is a hardware company developing quantum memories and the first quantum startup from UIUC. We aim to become the premier supplier of photonic quantum memories for the emerging quantum communication, networking, and computing sectors. Quantum memories comprise many of the required components for these sectors and will command a significant fraction of this market size, but the currently available quantum memory technologies lack many performance metrics. Our quantum memory technology has been pioneered by the research group of Prof. Paul Kwiat over the past two decades. It outperforms all competing technologies in head-to-head comparisons for several critical quantum applications. Our company aims to accelerate the realization of important quantum applications by providing high-performance quantum memories. photonqueue.com
Illinois FAST Center Federal and State Technology Partnership Center at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign The Illinois FAST Center, led by EnterpriseWorks, provides free resources, support, and expertise necessary to submit a highly competitive SBIR/STTR funding proposal. Together, we have helped companies acquire millions of dollars in federal SBIR/STTR funding – at no cost whatsoever to them. Securing federal grant funding for your innovative idea or technology is a critical step toward commercial success. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, often referred to as “America’s Seed Fund,” are an excellent source of undiluted funding, but are highly competitive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbXVmZvF9Po Why the Illinois FAST Center is at EnterpriseWorks? Up to 25% of all State of Illinois SBIR/STTR funding is awarded annually to the companies or graduates of EnterpriseWorks in Research Park. These programs award $2 billion dollars annually to qualified small businesses across the nation for innovative projects that meet specific federal needs. Entrepreneurs receive anywhere from $150,000 to $1 million in capital. Awards are based on small business qualifications, degree of innovation, technical merit and future market potential. Illinois FAST Center Resources Office Hours Office hours are available by appointment to Illinois-based teams seeking quick answers about SBIR/STTR funding. Click Here SBIR/STTR FAQs Best Kept Secret! Click here to download your very own copy of this super valuable resource. Click Here Newsletter Subscribe to the FAST Center Newsletter to stay up-to-date on programs, webinars, and other resources. Click Here One-on-One Technical Assistance Entrepreneurs, researchers, and inventors throughout the State of Illinois can apply for one-on-one technical assistance. This includes assistance with more complex SBIR/STTR questions such as insight, guidance, or strategy for selecting an agency or solicitation, review and feedback of proposal drafts, and help with proposal budgets and application process. A limited number of hours are available for per business, per proposal for 1:1 technical assistance and are subject to availability of program funding. Roland Garton, Garton Consulting Services Anna Lisa Somera, ALS Consulting Kris Parmelee, Parmelee Consulting Group Heidi Platt, Platinum Grants & Proposals Roland Garton is President and Lead Consultant of Garton Consulting Services, Inc. He has over four decades of experience with grant development, government contracting, program and project management, training and documentation, and program administration. Roland has written or advised on scores of SBIR proposals worth several million dollars to 9 of the 11 federal SBIR-granting agencies. He has also managed several projects resulting from successful SBIR proposals. In addition, he has set up bookkeeping and timekeeping systems for many SBIR recipients, prepared invoices and Incurred Cost Proposals, and helped navigate multiple companies through federal audits, many of them conducted by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA). Anna Lisa is an experienced medical device consultant, venture capitalist, intellectual property analyst, technology transfer specialist, biomedical researcher, and entrepreneur specializing in early-stage, cutting-edge technology businesses. She has been part of the entrepreneurial community in Illinois for 14 years and has helped drive the formation and raised angel and venture funding for several startup companies while also serving as top management for many of the ventures. Somera’s advising adds up to over thirty million dollars in grants to date, mostly for Illinois companies. Her multi-disciplinary academic preparation in business, public health, and cell biology, along with her strong ties to the University of Illinois, has aided in her success in the entrepreneurial community. Additionally, Somera serves as an SBIR/STTR grant consultant at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and Argonne National Laboratory. Kristen (Kris) Parmelee is a proud graduate of Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). She started her career at an Indianapolis-based nonprofit in program development and management. After gaining initial experience in fund raising, Kris launched her own venture in 2000 with a focus on private foundation and federal grants. In 2005, she expanded her experience to include SBIR/STTR and for the past five years, has focused almost exclusively on SBIR/STTR and project management services. Heidi Platt is the Founder and President of Platinum Grants & Proposals. With a Chemical Engineering degree from Purdue University, she has gained more than 15 years of engineering and project leadership experience. Heidi has written and assisted with many winning government proposals and has had the responsibility of managing government contracts. Before founding Platinum Grants & Proposals, Heidi was the Director of the Proposal Assistance Program at high tech engineering firm Techshot where she assisted businesses with the development of federal and state proposals by providing outlines, guidance, reviews, and technical analysis. One of her main roles was to teach clients the process of preparing and submitting an SBIR/STTR proposal. Heidi also served as Techshot’s project engineer. Through this role, she developed SBIR proposals and managed multiple research and development contracts with NASA. Roland Garton is President and Lead Consultant of Garton Consulting Services, Inc. He has over four decades of experience with grant development, government contracting, program and project management, training and documentation, and program administration. Roland has written or advised on scores of SBIR proposals worth several million dollars to 9 of the 11 federal SBIR-granting agencies. He has also managed several projects resulting from successful SBIR proposals. In addition, he has set up bookkeeping and timekeeping systems for many SBIR recipients, prepared invoices and Incurred Cost Proposals, and helped navigate multiple companies through federal audits, many of them conducted by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA). Anna Lisa is an experienced medical device consultant, venture capitalist, intellectual property analyst, technology transfer specialist, biomedical researcher, and entrepreneur specializing in early-stage, cutting-edge technology businesses. She has been part of the entrepreneurial community in Illinois for 14 years and has helped drive the formation and raised angel and venture funding for several startup companies while also serving as top management for many of the ventures. Somera’s advising adds up to over thirty million dollars in grants to date, mostly for Illinois companies. Her multi-disciplinary academic preparation in business, public health, and cell biology, along with her strong ties to the University of Illinois, has aided in her success in the entrepreneurial community. Additionally, Somera serves as an SBIR/STTR grant consultant at the
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Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program EIR consulting meetings are available both in-person and virtually. The Research Park Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) program provides free consulting to new startup ventures and prospective technology entrepreneurs. The Entrepreneur-in-Residence team features experienced entrepreneurs that have faced challenges in commercializing research/early stage technology. They provide advice on a wide variety of business topics like successfully attracting investment, building a team and communicating value proposition. The EIRs are available via appointment for any Research Park client or University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty, staff, student or community technology entrepreneur to receive business consulting, strategy assistance, marketing and communication help, investor preparedness, or other startup consultation needed. Entrepreneurs may select an EIR or have one assigned by the EnterpriseWorks staff based on the subject matter and availability of the team. The EIR program also has monthly training events for technology entrepreneurs covering basic fundamentals most entrepreneurs face such as intellectual property basics, business development and sales, SBIR/STTR grant writing, and investor options and negotiations. For assistance, submit an online request form. Dennis Beard | Ops and Execution Planning Dennis is Managing Partner of Serra Ventures and also serves as a Partner and CFO for Open Prairie Ventures, both early-stage venture capital firm. Champaign-based Serra Ventures invests in technology companies and specializes in agriculture technologies. Serra has invested in over 70 companies, including many from the Research Park, and its partners also have worked with EnterpriseWorks and the Research Park as EIRs for more than a decade, including CEO Tim Hoerr. Dennis, a CPA, has been involved throughout his career with businesses of all sizes as a Manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Controller for SLM Aminco, CFO for Segno Communications, CFO and CEO for the Home Recovery Group of Companies, and Partner with Blakeman and Beard, LLC, CPA’s. Dennis is an adjunct faculty member in the Gies College of Business and lecturer for an entrepreneurial finance course. Experience: Finance | Healthcare | AgTech | Raising Capital | Investor Reporting | Exit Transactions | Investment Opportunities Chris Harbourt | AgTech, Finance, Raising Capital Chris Harbourt is a serial entrepreneur involved in a number of businesses and investments. His focus today is in helping faculty and students grow successful businesses from great ideas. Chris is currently involved in startup consulting, building new software businesses in agriculture, and building traditional businesses like aircraft flight services and building custom classic cars. Chris was the founding CEO of Agrible, where he led fundraising efforts (seed, Series A, bridge, and Series B) and assembled a great team who built valuable software for agriculture. Those efforts led to an exit that created wealth for investors and founders. Chris is investing as a Partner at Anther Group, an early stage consulting and investing firm. His expertise includes startup business operations, fundraising, software product development, physical product development, sustainability, and R&D data collection. Chris has a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Agricultural Engineering and teaches there in the Technology Entrepreneurship Center and the Department of Crop Sciences sharing experiences with students. Experience: Agriculture | Fundraising | Software | Business Operations | Sustainability | Product Development | Data Collection Matthew Meltzer | Immigration Law Matt co-founded Meltzer Hellrung in 2014 with his business partner, Matthew Hellrung. Their vision was to combine exceptional, strategic, and programmatic legal guidance with best-in-class technology to provide a service that makes immigration management easier for companies and more transparent, intuitive, and reassuring for foreign national employees. In addition, Matt continues to strive to build a workplace that treats employees with dignity and invests in their long-term success. Experience: Employee Hiring | Immigration Policy | Mergers | Global Expansion | Government Inspections | Reorganizations | I-9 Compliance Natalie Marquez | Comunications, Graphics, Marketing Natalie Marquez is the Founder of Grow Marketing + Communications, LLC, a firm that provides business development, marketing, branding, and communication support. Natalie has served a wide variety of startups and small businesses, including the healthcare and agriculture sectors. This includes work with small farms and farm businesses to large-scale grant projects through the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture. Prior to founding Grow Marketing + Communication, Natalie worked for over a decade in municipal government, most recently for the city of Urbana, serving as Marketing Coordinator & Director of Urbana’s Market at the Square – one of the largest and most diverse producer-only farmers markets in Illinois. Natalie has a double major in Journalism/Advertising and Political Science from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Experience: Business Development | Marketing | Branding | Communication | Strategic Planning Paul Miller | Founder, Operations, Software Paul S. Miller, PhD, has been creating science-based, intelligent systems since 2005. In 2014, he founded Agrible, Inc building the world’s first predictive analytics system that put critical knowledge into the hands of growers to manage their operations. With Agrible, he and his team launched the largest agriculture sustainability platform enabled by intelligent systems, which has characterized millions of acres of farmland across the US. Agrible was acquired in 2018 by Nutrien Ag Solutions for $63M and was a top 5 global Ag Tech acquisition at the time. Paul co-founded Flats or Spikes in 2020, where he is building a business using conversational, generative intelligent systems fine-tuned with domain experts to create quality of life for everyone. Paul has a background in ML/AI and data science including publications and patents. Has led the development of ag tech platforms, mobile apps, data science, ML/AI systems, infrastructure, and ETL pipelines for science-based products. He also has led design and product development teams to build products using agile, user-focused methodologies. Paul also has a personal love of DIY music and playing drums and guitar. Experience: Agile Methodologies | AgTech Platforms | Product Development | Product Engineering | Startup Ideation | Business Development | Startup Acquisition Edwin Moore | Biomedical, FDA Regulations Ed Moore is the President and Principal Consultant of BioPhia Consulting Inc. and a Visiting Scientist at the University of Illinois Chemistry Department. He brings 30 years of biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, and clinical diagnostic industry experience from global
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EnterpriseWorks Shared Services Program The EnterpriseWorks incubator at the University of Illinois offers a Shared Services Program to help its clients with short-term project needs. Let our diverse team of student specialists help your company with of projects in areas such as graphic design, social media, and communications. Shared Services is a free service for eligible companies. To request a project, please apply online. If your application is approved, Shared Services will contact you and meet with you to start the project. Who is eligible? EnterpriseWorks tenants and affiliates I-Start recipients What are the guidelines? Fall & Spring: During the academic semester, only one project request per company will be approved. Summer: Multiple project requests from the same company may be approved. A company may submit one request at a time, and additional requests will not be considered until the deliverables from the previous project have been completed. Project Scope: Project requests must be short-term in nature, such that completion in 30 business days is reasonable, with specific deliverables. Note: As of 2024, we cannot offer web development as a service. Thank you for understanding. Submit a Shared Services Request by filling out this application. Types of Projects Have a project in mind? See if it aligns with any approved project types here. Previous Projects View recent projects completed by our student specialists. Shared Services This program gives startups access to student talent for projects.
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Catapult Program The Catapult Program benefits University of Illinois-affiliated entrepreneurs with strong potential for technology commercialization through new company formation. Catapult awardees have access to a suite of professional services, including business development, legal setup, SBIR applications, bookkeeping, and marketing/branding assistance. EnterpriseWorks maintains a list of professional service providers and pricing for Catapult clients. Catapult award recipients are required to become tenants of the EnterpriseWorks incubator. Through the program, EnterpriseWorks competitively awards companies 80% of the service cost (up to $5000). Funding and resources are available for one year. Lastly, services are expected to be completed within the budget allocations for each category. An Ideal Candidate should: Have the company in the pre-formation stage Have the Technology licensed, or in the process of being licensed, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Apply to the Catapult Program Disclaimer: Submitting the form doesn’t guarantee the award, and the applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Service Providers If your firm wishes to provide services for Catapult program, please submit a one-page scope of services on any of the packages listed on the table, including prices and contact information on company letterhead, to research-park@illinois.edu. Catapult Program Catapult provides university-affiliated startups with access to professional services.
Workforce Development Workforce development resources are available to tenants large and small at the University of Illinois Research Park. Research Park and EnterpriseWorks companies have access to our Recruiter-in-Residence, Human Resources Expert-in-Residence, in-house workforce development expertise, and numerous recruiting events and workshops. The Talent Manager at the Research Park supports the growth of the workforce in the Park by connecting corporations and startups with student and full-time professional talent. This role works directly with clients and coordinates recruiting events and programming to facilitate these connections. Bryan Goode is the Talent Manager for the Research Park. Learn more and contact Bryan on the Research Park Staff Page. Recruiter-in-Residence The Recruiter-in-Residence (RIR) at the University of Illinois Research Park provides one-on-one recruiting assistance to companies scaling their operations through talent acquisition. Consulting is available for Research Park companies including corporations, small businesses, EnterpriseWorks tenants, and affiliate members. Growth-stage startups are prioritized. Sophie Roney is the Recruiter-in-Residence for the Research Park. She focuses on helping clients with best practices for sourcing, identifying, and successfully hiring full-time technical talent. She is the owner of PickedUS , a recruitment consulting agency specializing in startups, and agriculture-tech. Sophie is a Champaign native as well as a UIUC Gies College of Business alumna with experience in full-cycle recruiting and talent analytics from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. In addition to one-on-one technical recruiting assistance, she hosts annual training events and workshops throughout the year. Consulting services include: Technical recruiting advice and strategy suggestions Receiving templates for recruitment strategizing Interview planning Employment brand development Human Resources Expert-in-Residence Kelly Gust is the Human Resources Expert-in-Residence for the Research Park. She helps organizations connect their people strategy to their business strategy using data-driven solutions to hire, inspire and engage teams to perform. Kelly is the president and principal talent optimizer for HR Full Circle, a company that provides workforce strategy, talent optimization services and general human resources consulting to organizations of all sizes and stages, and is a certified partner of the Predictive Index. Kelly’s background is in strategic human resources, talent optimization, leadership development, assessment, performance coaching, training, and change management. Growing up in a small business, she understands the challenges many owners face in finding, keeping and scaling great talent. Her experience spans multiple industries such as utilities, travel and leisure, retail, pharma and engineering in organizations large and small. She has a master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology, and loves helping individuals and organizations reach their potential. She serves on the growth advisory panel for Innovate Springfield, the University of Illinois Springfield-led social innovation and business incubator program. She also serves on the board of Women Entrepreneurs of Central Illinois and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources. Consulting Services Include: Talent optimization Leadership development Performance coaching General human resources consulting Hiring & Networking Events The University of Illinois Research Park hosts and participates in multiple career fairs every year, hosts its own career fair in March, and creates specialty recruiting events engaging various Registered Student Organizations, university departments, and other affiliated groups. Additionally, Catalyze, a professional networking event, is held twice a year at EnterpriseWorks to encourage conversation among employers across Research Park and the Champaign-Urbana community. These events allow Research Park companies to recruit full-time and part-time employees, as well as interns. Research Park also employs staff dedicated to supporting the growing workforce of Research Park. They provide services including recruiting assistance and professional development opportunities. They connect employers to talent, facilitate Research Park exclusive hiring events and development workshops, and promote job openings across the community. For more information on recruiting assistance, contact uirp-jobs@illinois.edu Past Recruiting Assistance Workshops
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Faculty Engagement Research Park companies have access to University of Illinois faculty. Through the Expert-in-Residence program, company leadership can engage faculty on business needs including design, data science, and supply chain management. Whether a Corporate Innovation Center or a startup at EnterpriseWorks, these experts are available to consult Research Park companies at no charge. Experts-in-Residence If your company is interest in working with one of our Faculty Experts-in-Residence, please contact Laura Bleill at lwbleill@illinois.edu. More Resources Illinois Experts Office of Corporate Relations Laura Bleill Director of Communications and External Engagement Contact Laura to work with a Faculty Expert-in-Residence. Robert Brunner Robert Brunner provides consulting to Research Park companies through his role as Data Science Expert-in-Residence. Brunner is a Professor in the School of Information Sciences and in the Department of Accounting in the College of Business at the University of Illinois with interests in big data challenges involving data analysis, visualization, and mining. Robert has led Big Data Short courses that focused on topics in visualization and the use of Hadoop and HPC resources for data analytics. As the Data Science Expert-in-Residence, Robert provides guidance to clients by applying advanced computational and statistical techniques to astronomical data to gain insights that are applicable to business. Udatta Palekar Lorem Ipsum Jana Diesner Dr. Jana Diesner is a faculty member in the iSchool and earned her PhD in CS from Carnegie Mellon University. Diesner conducts research at the nexus of network science, natural language processing and machine learning. Her research contributes computational analysis of the interplay and co-evolution of information and the structure and functioning of socio-technical networks.
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Allied Agency Allied Agencies may can receive specific benefits offered by the University of Illinois for being located on the Urbana-Champaign campus. For more information on the benefits of being an allied organization, please visit the Office of Corporate Relations website here. Companies located at the University of Illinois Research Park are eligible to apply for Allied Agency status. To become an Allied Agency, follow these steps: Complete this form and send it to research-park@illinois.edu. Research Park staff will sign and send the form to the Office of Corporation Relations, who will send a letter to your Research Park site. Next, send a list of your employees to the OCR and Research Park staff. Request a NetID. After requesting a NetID, request an Illinois.edu email address by contacting Tech Services. Then, you may request a Research Park card. Visit the ID Center located at the Illini Union Bookstore to get your card.
Designer-In-Residence EntrepriseWorks has engaged Dr. Deana McDonagh, Professor of Industrial Design in the School of Art + Design at the University of Illinois, as a Designer-in-Residence. In this role, she assists University of Illinois inventors and entrepreneurs to incorporate empathic design and design thinking in their technology development to help improve user experiences and performance of products to meet customer needs. She is an Empathic Design Research Strategist who focuses on enhancing quality of life for all through more intuitive and meaningful products, leading to emotional sustainability. Her research concentrates on emotional user-product relationships and how empathy can bring the designer closer to users’ authentic need. Specifically, McDonagh works with startup companies in EnterpriseWorks to further support transforming their inventions into innovations for wider impact. Support can include user research, initial form exploration, mood boards, brainstorming, field research, user evaluation and design strategy. A recent article in Wired spoke of the need, “So instead of competing on technology, people are competing on design. And now everyone seems to be trying to out-design each other.” EnterpriseWorks companies can receive assistance from our Designer-in-Residence at no charge. DESIGNER-IN-RESIDENCE REQUEST Deana McDonagh Designer-in-Residence Deana is our dedicated Designer-in-Residence.
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