VIDEO: Innovation Moonshot Experience coming to UND
Amy Whitney, director of Center for Innovation, introduces summer event to help UND researchers commercialize discoveries
This week’s video message from President Armacost features an update on one of UND’s “moonshot” initiatives set forth by the president this past fall.
Joining Armacost is Amy Whitney, director of the Center for Innovation. The CFI is UND’s commercialization hub for technology transfer.
“We help take ideas and turn them into real-world impact,” Whitney says.
With Armacost’s goal for the University to launch at least four companies based on UND intellectual property, Whitney and her team at the CFI created, among a series of new programs, what they’re calling the “Innovation Moonshot Experience.”
Set to first take place this summer, the experience will be an opportunity for researchers who have developed intellectual property to come together, meet with mentors and explore how their inventions and discoveries can take the next step to commercialization.
The CFI seeks to create a cohort of UND researchers that can experience this opportunity together in a way that’s structured and guided by those who are experienced in translating discovery to opportunity.
The event will be in-person and online, Whitney says, and the goal is to inspire curiosity about where UND faculty research can go, beyond the lab.
Armacost remarks that many research efforts on campus look to journal publication as a means of commercializing discovery, but that the CFI can help to do more for the University’s research enterprise.
Whitney says this effort is part of a culture change at UND with more sessions planned. And for those who can’t take part in the summer session, CFI staff are always available to answer questions.
The easiest way for people to get more information, Whitney says, is to email UND.moonshot@UND.edu.
