The city of Phoenix has approved funding for a medical technology accelerator, dubbed Innovention, which will be operated in collaboration with University of Arizona.
University of Arizona (UA) is set to operate a new medical technology accelerator called Innovention after the city council of Phoenix today approved $35,000 in seed funding for the program.
The program is a collaboration between the city and UA’s College of Medicine-Phoenix, College of Engineering, Eller College of Management and the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship.
Approximately 12 students are expected to enter the program per semester, though this number could rise if Innovention secures foundation grants.
The facility will include research labs and fabrication equipment, and will also offer business consulting services. It is located on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, a cluster that includes UA, Arizona State University and Translational Genomics Research Institute.
Innovention will be led by Frederic Zenhausern, professor of basic medical sciences and founding director of Center for Applied Nanobioscience and Medicine at UA, and Remy Arteaga, director of McGuide Center for Entrepreneurship at Eller College of Management.
Zenhausern said: “While Phoenix and Arizona are rich in business incubators and accelerators, even across the nation there are few programs designed specifically to accelerate healthcare and life sciences.
“This is an environment created specifically to get an idea to market as rapidly as possible. Unlike an incubator, which generally helps launch a business, Innovention takes ideas and turns them to marketable products for the founders.”