The Fund
The University of California, San Francisco is proud to announce the launch of our UCSF Innovation Ventures Philanthropy Fund or “InVent Fund”, a philanthropic trust to boost the University’s most promising healthcare discoveries through translational studies and closer to the marketplace. Traditionally, to guarantee their breakthroughs advance to commercialization, universities partner with industry, licensing discoveries to new or established companies whose goals are to develop those inventions into successful products. In return for industry investment, universities and inventors usually cede control over the relevant innovation at an early stage and with much higher risk. As a consequence, even in the case of discoveries that are ultimately transformed into blockbuster products, universities receive relatively modest financial returns for the ideas that originated in their laboratories. Creating the InVent Fund, UCSF seeks to rewrite the rules on how breakthrough discoveries are developed at our university. Instead of prematurely licensing the rights to our most promising but early findings to industry, we have created the InVent Fund to provide financial support, as well as experienced product development mentoring and expertise to a small number of outstanding projects. By supporting and de-risking our most promising projects through translational development, we expect to capture greater value for UCSF and our inventors with the added benefit of building a sustainable program of funding for future innovations.
Project Selection
All proposals from UCSF faculty for projects that have the potential to lead to an impactful product or service will be considered for funding. Projects that have successfully completed Catalyst Program funding will automatically be considered. Other proposals that are submitted using a brief application form below will also be considered. Applications will be reviewed primarily for potential patient impact. Proposals for this round of selection must be submitted by September 27,2019. The initial review of proposals will be conducted by advisors within the broader Catalyst advisor network who have particular expertise in the subject matter of each proposal. Selected proposals will then be considered for funding by the InVent Funding Committee, comprised of biotech executives, industry experts, and UCSF leadership. All applications are to be filled out by, or in the name of, the Principal Investigator (PI).