Partnership with State, universities bridges delta between research and commercialization
ANNAPOLIS, MD (April 13, 2012) – Governor Martin O’Malley today joined with entrepreneurs and business and university leaders at Baltimore’s Emerging Technology Center on 33rd Street to highlight the passage of Innovate Maryland. The bill was a key part of the Governor’s legislative package and seeks to bridge the delta between Maryland’s leadership in research and development and lagging behind in technology transfer and commercialization. Innovate Maryland creates a first-ever partnership between the State and five qualifying universities to advance cutting-edge research to the commercial marketplace and foster collaboration between the universities and federal laboratories.
“Passing Innovate Maryland this year means creating the next Microsoft or Google here in Maryland, or watching it happen in another state,” said Governor O’Malley. “Our goal of moving 40 new discoveries and innovations out of the lab and into the marketplace each year will help create the next generation of jobs and fuel our Innovation Economy pipeline for decades to come.”
Following his remarks, Governor O’Malley joined in a ribbon-cutting for one of the incubator’s newest companies, Juxtopia LLC, a biotech-IT company spun out of Morgan State University that has developed augmented reality goggles that are selling commercially. The Governor also toured the incubator’s Johns Hopkins Center for Bio Innovation Development (CBID), which houses three life sciences start-ups developing medical devices; and also visited Ignition 72 LLC, a technology start-up founded by three advertising industry veterans that develops custom websites and web solutions, including interactive games. Opened in 2003, the incubator – a venture of the Baltimore Development Corp. – focuses on commercializing innovative technologies from Johns Hopkins and other regional research institutions. It currently has 30 companies in various industry sectors, including bio, IT and alternative energy, and has a number of notable graduates, including Moodlerooms, an education software company which grew from three employees in 2006 to nearly 100 and was recently sold to industry leader Blackboard.
“Innovation is the cornerstone for Juxtopia to achieve its mission of improving human performance” said Dr. Jayfus T. Doswell, CEO of Juxtopia LLC. “Maryland has significantly supported Juxtopia’s research and development of innovate wearable augmented reality hardware and software that is now improving human performance.”
Among Innovate Maryland’s qualifying research universities are Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, University of Maryland Baltimore, University of Maryland Baltimore County and University of Maryland College Park. The initiative would be administered by the Maryland Technology Development Corp. (TEDCO), a public corporation with 14 years’ experience funding tech transfer and development programs and providing assistance to entrepreneurs, and would be overseen by an Executive Director and eight-member board made up of representatives from academia, technology businesses and government. The State allocates $5 million and qualifying universities have agreed to contribute between $100,000 and $200,000 to fund start-up grants to researchers best positioned to move their discoveries into the commercial marketplace, with the goal of significantly increasing university spin-outs.
“On behalf of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation, we would like to applaud Governor O’Malley and the Maryland General Assembly for championing this visionary initiative,” said Jack Lewin, Chair of the TEDCO board of directors. “Maryland leads the country in technology development and will continue to do so as we produce commercial applications and job creation through Innovate Maryland. The goals of the initiative align with TEDCO’s expertise in serving Maryland entrepreneurs, universities and Federal labs to support economic development. We are honored to play a role in this important plan.”
“Johns Hopkins is placing more emphasis than ever on interdisciplinary research, particularly addressing the areas of engineering and medicine working together to solve clinical and therapeutic problems,” said Elizabeth Good Mazhari, Director of Ventures, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “This legislation further encourages inter-university partnerships and will help accelerate our ability to commercialize.”
This is the second year that Governor O’Malley has targeted Maryland’s innovation economy as part of his legislative agenda. Last year, the Governor introduced InvestMaryland, an initiative created by the Governor and passed by the General Assembly to invest in the State’s promising start-up and early stage companies. Through an historic on-line auction last month, $84 million was raised for program, far exceeding a goal of $70 million. While other states have sold tax credits to fund similar venture capital initiatives, Maryland is the first state to use an online auction to raise the capital for such a program. The inaugural round of investments will be made in innovative companies this summer through several private venture capital firms and the State’s successful Maryland Venture Fund (MVF).