From Research to Business - Collaboration between UU Innovation and UU Invest shortens time to market
UU Invest hosts your project so that you can establish necessary agreements with collaborative partners, hire key personnel to investigate or develop the concept, and also assist ‘hands on’ in negotiations and strategic work.
A challenge when conducting academic research and finding a potential solution to a problem is the need to protect your invention. This is done by applying for a patent. Protection involves setting a ‘timer’ on the exclusive rights to your invention, but also the costs associated with those rights begin to ‘tick’. Patent costs, initially relatively low, soon start to increase and need to be justified from a business perspective. Therefore, it is crucial to use time effectively from idea to product.
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From research to business: How UU Invest and UU Innovation can assist you
The path from research results to something marketable involves several difficult choices. UU Innovation is the advisory unit at Uppsala University that can help you gather information to make these decisions. They are there for you if you are employed at the university and have an idea on how to solve a real problem.
UU Invest is the university’s investment support tasked with supporting companies based on research at Uppsala University. UU Invest can invest in your company and actively participate in business and strategy development.
UU Innovation and UU Invest collaborate to cover the entire process from an idea to a company ready to attract larger venture capital investments or sign collaboration agreements with relevant stakeholders.
Collaboration that can bring your research idea to the market
When you have a potential solution to a known problem, you turn to UU Innovation to discuss possibilities and obstacles for commercializing your idea. You can get help prioritizing among the questions that need to be investigated. There is also grant money available for these investigations. The questions can vary as all projects are different. Examples of questions include:
- How is your solution better than existing ones?
- How should the product be sold?
- How should the product be produced?
- What is a reasonable price for the customer?
Once you have mapped out your path, in most cases, basic funding will be needed to answer some of these questions. Many choose to start a company and seek grants and investments to do this. In such cases, UU Invest can invest and become a shareholder in your company.
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UU Invest helps you make your idea ‘investment-worthy’
If you don’t have a finished product to show, it can be challenging to find investors willing to risk their money on a business with high financial risk.
UU Invest also helps researchers without a finished concept make their project ‘investment-worthy’. This can be done before you start a company. UU Invest can host and pre-incubate your project for a limited time (1-2 years) and work together with you and advisors at UU Innovation to develop your product or service. An investment from UU Invest comes in addition to any grant financing for your project. In practice, this means that UU Invest will own a portion of your future business at the start (10-15%), but also contribute their own uncompensated time and help with prioritized activities. In total, UU Invest can invest up to three million Swedish SEK in your company over time.
UU Invest has been around for more than 25 years and has reviewed, provided feedback on, and assisted with over a thousand projects. Since UU Invest does not require you to have started a company to make an investment, we can help in very early stages in your project development. You can run your project within our corporation, allowing you to establish necessary agreements with collaborative partners, hire key personnel to investigate or develop the concept. We can also assist hands-on in negotiations and strategic work, as well as prepare your project with necessary agreements for incorporation and provide expertise for future board work.
If you want to get in touch with Uppsala University Invest and receive more information on how we can help you and your project, you can contact Mateo Santurio. Also, subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on the latest news.
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Ulf Landegren och hans forskningsgrupp ligger bakom banbrytande forskning som lett till nya innovationer som framgångsrikt förvaltats och utvecklats i en rad olika bolag. Rarity Bioscience med vd Linus Bosaeus är ett av de senaste i raden.