Increased space will benefit businesses, technologies coming out of Temple.
Temple’s Office of Research and Business Development leased incubator space at the University City Science Center in West Philadelphia as part of the Science Center’s Port Business Incubator and will serve as a launching point for new businesses and technologies developed by Temple faculty.
Temple was already one of the academic partners of the center and now has dedicated office space. The details of the agreement were negotiated between the university and science center.
“The space will be used by these new companies looking to develop their programs,” Vice Provost for Research and Business Development Anthony Lowman said. “This could include developing proposals, meetings with venture capital firms, potential partners, et cetera.”
As more companies developed, the university needed a space off campus for these companies to work.
Two companies that will start using the space include one that is working on a technology coming from the chemistry department and another technology coming from the Health Sciences Center.
PureNANO Technologies, a company out of Fox School of Business is developing nanotechnology created by chemistry professor Eric Borguet. The company was the winner of last year’s Be Your Own Boss Bowl.
“There are multiple others that we are talking with,” Lowman said. “However, we hope to make this space available to any Temple-based startup or technology that wishes to use this facility.”
With incubator space to hold meetings and conduct business, new businesses can focus their efforts and resources on fundraising and developing technology. These technologies came out of the laboratories of the faculty and in many cases were jointly from the students and faculty.
In many cases, the students and faculty could work side by side with the company to develop their discoveries further. As the company grows and generates revenue, Temple receives a share, which is distributed to the inventors such as faculty, staff, students, the academic units and the university.
“Temple has an incredible technology portfolio across all of its college and schools,” Lowman said. “This is an opportunity for companies based on these technologies to develop further and transition the research discovery into societal use.”
Revenues from these technologies have grown dramatically during the last two years and this effort is aimed at doing this even further.
The revenues this year are expected to be approaching $3 million.
“This revenue allows us to invest in this space and the growth of our research program,” Lowman said.
Dominique Johnson can be reached at dominique.johnson@temple.edu.
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