Park’s EnterpriseWorks helps make ‘tech transfer’ work

When professors want to get an idea off the ground, they look to the University of Illinois Research Park’s EnterpriseWorks http://researchpark.illinois.edu/ , a 43,000-square-foot building that has nurtured 74 startup businesses since the park’s opening.

The university, with state funding, built EnterpriseWorks to support the UI’s "tech transfer" initiative – helping professors bring their ideas, whether a software program or a pharmaceutical drug, to the marketplace.
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After spending their early years incubating on campus, several companies have gone on to establish offices in the research park or in Champaign County. Others have moved to Silicon Valley. Some have closed up shop.

"We don’t want them to be renting space they’re not using," Frerichs said.

As a result, the university has created a new affiliate program specifically for companies in very early stages of development. For about $100 a month, the startup company can have services such as a mailing address and mailbox in EnterpriseWorks, access to shared conference rooms and access to entrepreneur-in-residence consulting services.

The entrepreneur-in-residence program, also new, involves the university hiring someone with entrepreneurial experience for four hours a week of on-site consulting at EnterpriseWorks and other programs or workshops.

By Stephanie Lulay

Full Story: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/education/2009/11/29/parks_enterpriseworks_helps_make_tech_transfer_work