University-Industry Engagement Week

GSK partners with FIU students to increase diversity and reduce health disparities


By David Schwartz
Published: March 28th, 2023

A detailed article on FIU’s partnership with GSK – and the Innovation Challenge aimed at addressing health disparities while nurturing a more diverse talent pool for the pharma company – appears in the March issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor. For subscription information, click here.

Although Florida International University had never previously collaborated with GSK, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, their first partnership is a biggie. In January StartUP FIU, the innovation hub at the university, and GSK launched the GSK Innovation Challenge, a 12-week program in which a cohort of 31 FIU undergraduate students will seek to identify barriers to timely and effective health maintenance and care within their communities. FIU is one of the largest Hispanic-serving institutions in the U.S. and in fact, with about 56,000 students, one of the largest public universities in the country.

How did such a major commitment develop between two entities that had never previously worked together? “It came like everything comes about in Miami; there are only two degrees of separation in Miami,” says Emily Gresham, FIU’s assistant vice president for research, innovation and economic development and co-founder of StartUP FIU. “The GSK folks contacted one of our friends in the community that runs a social entrepreneurship incubator, [saying] that they wanted to work with a university on a challenge. They contacted us, and literally within a week we had a meeting with the (U.S.) president of GSK Pharma. I didn’t believe it when they first told me. We started talking and within about two months we pulled the whole program together.”

The community partner also put FIU in contact with one of the consultants supporting GSK in its efforts to find collaborators in majority Hispanic and Black universities to help them with the challenge, adds Gustavo Grande, director of Venture Ready Programs at StartUP FIU and the primary mentor for the GSK Challenge. (Venture Ready is one of StartUP FIU’s three divisions; it supports student entrepreneurship and education.) In early discussions with GSK, he notes, the company shared that “only 3% of their staff is Hispanic or African American. They felt they needed to have a different perspective of the community — that through the students they’d be able to get that perspective around health equity and preventive healthcare.”

“They felt they needed to work with actual minority people in order to address the health disparity issues they were interested in,” adds Robert Hacker, director and co-founder of StartUP FIU, which works with over 40 faculty researchers in a year, as well as with minority small business owners in the community.

In terms of the university’s goals for the Innovation Challenge, “I’d love to see our students spark some type of creative thinking that maybe the GSK folks do not yet have — and that grows into something bigger for them,” Gresham says, “and that students look at GSK as a viable employment opportunity and that they get jobs — because they’re good jobs. And, for faculty to begin to understand what it’s like to work with industry and [become] interested in doing more of these types of collaborations.”

“The first thing I’d like to see it accomplish is that this documents to corporate America — and particularly corporate Miami — that we at StartUP FIU can be good partners for a really challenging problem,” adds Hacker. “This is a great example for students of what they call active learning, with the corporation [directly involved] in the activity. And one of GSK’s goals is to identify more minority students to be hired at GSK — they’ve set that goal from very first time we met them. The third objective is to do a repeat challenge with GSK and build it into an ongoing relationship.”

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Auburn U and other state schools join in launch of Alabama AI Center of Excellence


By David Schwartz
Published: March 28th, 2023

In a public-private partnership designed to bring technology parity to underserved areas, Auburn University and other state schools have joined a public-private partnership establishing the Alabama Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence (AAICE). continue reading »

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Webinar tomorrow: Technology Transfer Marketing and Branding Roundtable


By David Schwartz
Published: March 28th, 2023

One of the most important aspects of IP commercialization is telling the technology’s story in a compelling way to attract licensees, funding, and research partners. And internally, faculty outreach efforts are just as important to keep the pipeline of inventions cranking and ensure faculty are knowledgeable about the process and the potential their IP holds. Ensuring the story is heard by the right people is also paramount to success.

Digital marketing, business plans and pitches, scouting, e-mail, and outreach efforts must be customized by channel and target audience to achieve success. But some channels, plans and efforts work better than others – and busy TTO marketers don’t have time to waste on ineffective tactics.

To help your office hone its marketing plans and strategies, we’ve recruited a panel of top university technology marketing professionals to present their keys to success and their experience-based guidance in this idea-filled webinar: Technology Transfer Marketing and Branding Roundtable: What’s Working, What’s Not, and What’s Next.

Please join our panel of technology marketing experts – Clemson University’s Clarissa Austin, Emory University’s Linda Kesselring, Amanda Ashley from the University of Utah, and Johns Hopkins University’s Cindy Madden – tomorrow, March 29th, when they reveal their best performing efforts, dissect campaigns that didn’t perform as expected and share their top branding strategies.

For complete program details and to register, click here.

Also coming soon:

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Purdue U, Ericsson, and Saab partner on ‘lab to life’ 5G network turning airport into research site for aviation industry


By David Schwartz
Published: March 28th, 2023

Purdue University, in collaboration with industry partners Ericsson and Saab along with Purdue University Airport, is creating of a unique 5G network that will serve as a “lab to life” proving ground for academics, researchers and business to develop technologies that will improve operations and security at airports of all sizes. The project aims to bring to life the benefits of private 5G for airports, where new high-performance networks can be tested in real-life scenarios. continue reading »

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UCLA collaborating with CancerVax on universal cancer vaccine


By David Schwartz
Published: March 28th, 2023

The University of California Los Angeles has launched a sponsored research program with partners CancerVAX, Inc., to develop a universal cancer vaccine (UCV). CancerVAX also signed an agreement with UCLA that gives the company exclusive rights to license all IP and technologies that may result from this research program. continue reading »

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Effective Models of University-Industry Engagement: Case Studies in Success


By David Schwartz
Published: March 28th, 2023

As part of its mission to support holistic industry engagement and assist universities in attracting more corporate partners, University-Industry Engagement Advisor has produced a distance learning collection featuring four leading universities that have used innovative strategies and proven programs to achieve robust relationships with corporate partners.

Kansas State University, Brown University, the University of Georgia, and the University at Buffalo are prime examples of how to foster welcoming and comprehensive industry engagement initiatives that result in research funding, job creation, philanthropic funding, talent pipeline development, and economic development.

Effective Models of University-Industry Engagement: Case Studies in Success features the details behind each of these programs in four in-depth presentations. The collection comes complete with the original program materials and includes on-demand video as well as transcripts — so you can listen and share them with your entire staff at your convenience.

For complete details on this valuable collection, click here.

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UA Little Rock and Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield partner to boost employee education


By David Schwartz
Published: March 28th, 2023

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is partnering with Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield to provide more opportunities for the insurer’s employees to have an affordable and accessible college education. continue reading »

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Ericsson joins with two Canadian universities to establish quantum research hub


By David Schwartz
Published: March 28th, 2023

Ericsson Canada, in partnership with the University of Ottowa and the University of Sherbrooke,  has established a new quantum research hub in Montreal that will explore quantum-based algorithms for accelerating processing in telecom networks and distributed quantum computing. continue reading »

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The University-Industry Engagement Book of Best Practices now available


By David Schwartz
Published: March 28th, 2023

The University-Industry Engagement Book of Best Practices is an all-new 326-page resource that’s chock-full of how-to strategies and case studies covering the most crucial responsibilities of corporate relations and industry engagement professionals. The rich collection of best practices offers success strategies and expert guidance straight from your industry engagement colleagues focused exclusively on building, managing, and expanding corporate partnerships for your university.

The University-Industry Engagement Book of Best Practices is packed with over 80 detailed articles filled with tips, tactics, ideas, expert guidance, charts and graphs, and nuts-and-bolts solutions in nine critical areas: Contracting; Partnership Development and Stewardship; Industry Advisory Boards; Office Structure and Integration; Talent Pipeline Development; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Faculty Outreach and Engagement; Alumni Outreach and Engagement; and Economic Development.

For complete details and to view the full table of contents, click here.

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McMaster U partnership brings first patient doses of new cancer radiation therapy


By David Schwartz
Published: March 28th, 2023

McMaster University, working with two industry partners — Terumo and AtomVie Global Radiopharma Inc. — has just delivered the first patient doses of a new radiation therapy for cancer treatment. The partnership produced two medical devices, QuiremSpheres™ and QuiremScout™, using radioactive holmium-166 microspheres in Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT) to treat liver cancer. Terumo is the legal manufacturer of both medical devices. continue reading »

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There’s still time to register for UIDP Nashville, coming April 19-20


By David Schwartz
Published: March 28th, 2023

There’s still time to register to join your colleagues in Music City to discuss university-industry trends and troubles and collaboratively brainstorm solutions. As an attendee, you will meet leading practitioners with the knowledge and initiative to make university-industry partnerships thrive. It’s an event you can’t afford to miss!

UIDP Nashville is your front-row ticket to inform future partnership journeys. You’ll network with peers, colleagues, and changemakers while building new connections and inspiring your next partnership.

Register Today

UIDP is also hosting HBCU Engage in conjunction with the Nashville meeting, April 18-19. To take advantage of the dual ticket option, click here to find out more.

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Ole Miss partners with HBCUs to tackle “workforce cliff” in insurance industry


By David Schwartz
Published: March 21st, 2023

A detailed article on the partnership between Ole Miss, multiple insurance companies, and the state’s HBCUs, designed to both increase diversity in the industry and address a looming talent shortage, appears in the March issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor. For subscription information, click here.

Last fall, the University of Mississippi announced a program intended to address a workforce shortage and a lack of diversity in the insurance industry by partnering with agents, brokers, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

The program comes at a time when insurance companies are experiencing the kind of historic personnel shortages that result when an industry’s retirements significantly outnumber its new hires.

“In general, the industry is looking at a pretty massive workforce cliff,” says Hughes Miller, director of corporate giving and business engagement at Ole Miss. At the same time, he adds, “the people in the profession don’t fully reflect the communities they serve. We are trying to build a diverse pipeline.”

To do that, Ole Miss has teamed up with the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers (CIAB) in Washington, DC, several regional powerhouse insurers, and Mississippi’s HBCUs.

“Our most recent initiative is focused on increasing diversity in the risk management and insurance space,” explains finance professor Andre Liebenberg, PhD, a chief proponent of the effort. “For this initiative we have engaged leading firms and an industry organization that have funded a certificate and internship program that is focused on HBCU students. Not only will the firms provide paid internships, but they will also provide executive level mentoring.”

The certificate program guarantees accessibility and affordability while ensuring that people of color can dive into the insurance job market quickly, which serves both a diversity goal and helps the insurance companies avoid that looming workforce cliff.

In the insurance and risk management industry “there are some roles in which you need a full four-year degree,” Miller explains — the type of leadership roles that deal with more complex industrywide issues or academic matters — but “others in which you don’t.”

Along with the certificate courses, Ole Miss packages offerings of professional development and internships to make sure participants aren’t just capable of joining the field, but are actually ushered into it. With emphasis on mentoring, certificate earners and interns will fill personnel gaps and begin seeding the industry with agents and brokers who better reflect the diversity of the industry’s broad base of customers.

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