The UMKC Entrepreneurship Innovation Grant Program announced 12 recipients out of 28 submitted proposals, totaling $500,000 in awards.
UMKC students, faculty and staff submitted proposals including 13 technology commercial and 15 program and professional development requests in the amount of $1,041,564.
Seven grants were awarded to Technology Commercialization projects and five were awarded to Program and Professional Development projects.
The Entrepreneurship Innovation Grant Program is funded by the Kauffman Foundation and is a joint effort by the UMKC Innovation Center, the Regnier Institute at the UMKC Bloch School of Management and the UMKC School of Law.
These are the projects awarded grants starting June 1, 2023.
Technology Commercialization
De-risking the Commercialization of a Novel UMKC-Owned Technology to Diagnose Pediatric Glaucoma
An interdisciplinary collaboration between School of Medicine and School of Science and Engineering (SSE) faculty and a talented SSE graduate student. UMKC Tech Transfer has protected the IP with a non-provisional foreign patent application and is actively working with the inventors to commercialize the technology. The first-in-class software technology has the potential to significantly disrupt the field of glaucoma health care, a growing market exceeding $5.5B billion in 2021.
Designing a Health IT Prototype to Improve Clinician Communication Across Care Settings
The goal of this project is to identify a feasible, viable, and desirable design for improving efficiency in communication between healthcare entities that do not currently have interoperable health records. By the end of the project, design plans will be prepared to build a minimum viable product and will request more funding to expand testing to additional hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and LTCFs across Missouri.
WeListen: An AI-Empowered Scalable Solution to Obtaining Consumer Insight for Business Development
The primary objective of the proposed project is to conduct consumer discovery research that informs the concurrent development of data querying and visualization tools tailored for our target clients, which include doctors, nurses, practitioners, physicians, and healthcare administrators and managers. Gaining insights into population health and patient experiences is crucial for addressing health disparities and promoting value-driven healthcare. The broader impact of this project is the development of a solution for qualitative consumer data analysis in consumer insight studies across various industries.
4-dimensionally printed biodegradable implants for safer membrane elevation in sinus lift procedures
This project includes the design and manufacturing of 4D-printed implant prototypes, well- investigated and FDA approved biodegradable materials for tissue engineering.
- Prototype storage in simulated body fluid and testing of mechanical properties at various time points will capture influence of material degradation.
- Determination of the implant’s biocompatibility and potential of bone formation on and around the implant via cell culture lab testing
- Suitable material compositions will be identified and used in an animal study outside of this EIG project grant
Improving the Capacity of the UMKC Office of Technology Commercialization
This investment creates appealing opportunities for business development by enhancing the process of transferring university technologies to businesses. This project provides opportunities to recruit a graduate assistant from the UMKC School of Law, Henry W. Bloch School of Management students seeking their MBA, and students from the School of Science and Engineering schools, with each student expected to approximately forty (40) hours per month. Leveraging the graduate-level expertise of these students will enhance various aspects of the disclosure review process, market review and planning, and prior art review.
Strengthening Intellectual Property Protections for Drug Development in Diabetes and Other Diseases
Securing patents for the intellectual property that is resulting from National Institute of Health research, as well as new developments that will enable the translation of academic results into groundbreaking therapies, and that has the potential to be extremely lucrative for the university.
UMKC SSE Senior Design Far Field Wireless Power Transfer Project
Funding supports UMKC E&C department senior design class focused on training students to design, implement , and meet milestones and deliverables toward a relevant and timely engineering problem. This project includes the design, implementation and demonstration of wireless power transfer (WPT) systems that operate at 1-5 meters with goals of charging compact batteries to perpetually charge a rotor wing UAS mid-flight for the UMKC E&C senior design project.
Program and Professional Development
Creating a pipeline for Pharmacy Business Entrepreneurship
To create a pipeline of students from high school through professional programs to support student entrepreneurs in getting their PharmD/MBA at UMKC. The grant supports student recruitment beginning in high school and through their pre-pharmacy experience with an emphasis on the business/entrepreneurship FACT program at UMKC School of Pharmacy, to increase in the number of students completing the PharmD/MBA program.
Fostering An Entrepreneurial Mindset for Students and Faculty in UMKC’s Digital and Public Humanities Program
Create workshops and an internship program in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences that will inspire participants in the Digital and Public Humanities Program to bring an entrepreneurial mindset to their work. It will help them think about themselves not just as potential employees of arts and humanities organizations but also a s entrepreneurial thinkers who can start their own companies or bring an entrepreneurial mindset to existing positions within arts and cultural heritage organizations.
Digital Toolkit, a Course in Creative Entrepreneurship
Create a course in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences called Digital Toolkit to allow entrepreneurs to learn the basic skills to create professional online content with training in design, video and audio production and content creation.
Creating Resource-Guiding Relationships in Kansas City's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Funding will support the development of a series of master classes designed to introduce aspiring entrepreneurs, including UMKC students, to Kansas City's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Leveraging the expertise of Porter House KC and KC SourceLink, a cohort of entrepreneurs will be given the opportunity to learn from and network with regional experts.
UMKC Enactus - Venture Competition Accelerator
Create a “Competition Accelerator Program” for the UMKC Enactus team. The Enactus team develops several student-led social entrepreneurship ventures every year as part of the team’s normal activities. In recent years, Enactus has entered select projects into national entrepreneurship competitions. Participation in these types of events, along with the national Enactus USA competition, are beneficial to the team. and funding enables Enactus to formalize the process for preparing for, applying for, and attending competitions with a Competition Accelerator Program.