The Sustainable Heartland Accelerator Regional Partnership (SHARP) Hub

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Project Summary/Abstract Despite the investment of billions of dollars in biomedical research each year from NIH, barriers remain in effectively translating basic science discoveries from academia to commercial products that benefit patients. These barriers include a funding gap between basic research and commercial developments, a lack of knowledge by innovators on how to bring products to market, and a lack of sufficient commercialization resources required for early-stage developments. To address this need, this project will develop a five state biomedical technology transfer accelerator hub serving the Central Region IDeA states (Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, North Dakota and South Dakota). This accelerator hub will be called the Sustainable Heartland Accelerator Regional Partnership (SHARP) Hub. Led by BBC Entrepreneurial Training and Consulting LLC (BBCetc) and the University of Kansas (KU), SHARP Hub will implement a three-pronged approach to include a mentoring program, an entrepreneurial training curriculum, and networking and outreach tools. These resources will be available to universities or regional consortia to develop technology commercialization capacity in the health sciences. The long term goal is creation of a self-sustaining, regional biomedical technology transfer accelerator that will increase the number of biomedical technologies translated and new startups formed. In the first phase of the project, we will use the extensive training experience of BBCetc and the life science expertise at KU to build the leadership and governance framework of the accelerator hub, and establish the mentoring program, training curricula, and networking infrastructure at KU. During the first phase, we will also build relationships with targeted universities in the other four states of the Central Region, sign a memorandum of understanding with these universities, and host a regional conference. In the second phase of the project, we will roll out the mentoring program, training curricula and networking resources to the other four states. During the second phase, we also aim to implement a grant program to selected pilot projects using matching funds from outside of NIH dollars. To sustain SHARP Hub at the completion of the second phase, we intend license materials and protocols to biomedical technology transfer offices at universities nationwide with incremental services for a fee.