The University of Michigan recently launched the Monroe-Brown Seed Fund www.monroebrown.org, a new funding vehicle designed to advance the process for transitioning commercially viable engineering and medical research projects to market.
Funds are a collaborative effort between the College of Engineering’s Center for Entrepreneurship http://record.umich.edu/tags/center-entrepreneurship and the Medical School’s Fast Forward Medical Innovation Program http://record.umich.edu/tags/fast-forward-medical-innovation.
With the $3 million from the Monroe-Brown Foundation, the Seed Fund will award seed money to biomedical startup companies that exist as joint efforts between the engineering and medical schools and have marketplace potential. The fund will invest in startup companies developing medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutic delivery systems, health information technology, and digital health products.
The seed grants are also designed to accelerate the commercialization of biomedical research, to provide educational opportunities for researchers and students, and to positively impact patient care.
“We are thrilled for the support of the Foundation”, said Dr. Marschall Runge, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the Medical School. “The new fund will help us attract and retain world class researchers as well as biomedical entrepreneurs.”