Fast Facts
- In FY11, more University of Michigan technologies were licensed to companies than ever before.
- U-M research spending in FY 2011 grew 8.5 percent over the previous year to $1.24 billion, continuing the long-term trend of steady growth in the university’s research enterprise.
- University of Michigan will now directly invest in its own start-up ventures.
- The U-M Business Engagement Center manages relationships with over 1,000 companies.
- U-M ranks among the nation’s top five research universities in spending, according to National Science Foundation statistics.
- Industry sponsored research at U-M reached an all-time high of $62.5 million in FY10.
- U-M Medical School researchers set new record in NIH funding: $368.7 million in FY10.
- U-M Medical School’s ranks among the top 10 medical schools in the nation in terms of NIH grants awarded.
- The Michigan Initiative for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, conceived by U-M, brings together foundations, universities, and private-business resources to launch new startups.
- U-M Tech Transfer licensed 11 new business startups in fiscal year 2011.
- U-M faculty reported over 322 new inventions in fiscal year 2011.
- In FY10 the Business Engagement Center had 235 new engagements with companies that had never before connected with U-M.
- North Campus Research Complex, purchased from Pfizer in 2009 for $108 million, is now filling with private tenants, as well as U-M units. The expanded research space is expected to create between 2,000 and 3,000 jobs in the next 10 years.
- The Zell Lurie Institute has awarded more than $692,000 to 993 students in Dare to Dream grants for student start-ups since the program’s inception in 2002.
- The $14.5 billion economic impact of the URC – Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University is up 10 percent from last year.
- U-M has a multi-disciplinary dossier of some $6.6 million in research projects to examine the broad impact of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
- U-M Tech Transfer recorded 101 agreements with industry, including 11 new business startups in FY11, creating opportunities for business expansion and job creation.
- The Life Sciences Institute created the Innovation Partnership to bridge the critical funding gap between laboratory discovery and commercialization.
- Health Media, a U-M startup with 140 employees, was acquired by Johnson & Johnson, one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive health care companies.
- The U-M Phoenix Energy Institute provided $365,000 to help launch a web-based tool to assess the success of proposed solutions to the energy crisis.
- The $3.5 million Wolverine Venture Fund of the Zell Lurie Institute, started in 1998, saw a five-fold return from laser eye surgery company IntraLase Corp., a U-M spinout.
- The 1,000 Pitches Competition in 2010 received more than 3,000 ideas for new businesses, inventions, and non-profit organizations from students across the university.
- The Robert H. Lurie Nanofabrication Facility has contributed an estimated $500 million to the state’s economy.
- TechArb is a student-run small business incubator that hosts 30 student entrepreneurs running 10 start-up companies.
- U-M researchers are pioneering the use of sound waves on microfluidic devices as a means to achieve a truly portable lab-on-a-chip.
- U-M students created a portable device to detect suicide bombs. The palm-size metal detectors work with a wireless sensor network.
- “We have a mission to aid in economic development and growth, and reward entrepreneurs within the university.” – President Mary Sue Coleman.
- The U-M Office of Technology Transfer encourages student entrepreneurship with intellectual property rules that promote new company formation.
- The Frankel Commercialization Fund, a student-managed venture capital seed fund at the U-M Ross School of Business, invested $80,000 in Ann Arbor-based Accio Energy.
- Entrepalooza, organized by the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, is an annual daylong event to expose students to new-venture creation.
- IRLEE now offers services to 85 communities and 132 firms in the Midwest, doubling its outreach to distressed communities since 2006.
- A new position, associate dean for entrepreneurship, was created to champion the cause of entrepreneurship in the College of Engineering.
- Faculty led U-M spinoffs Lycera Corp. and NanoBio Corp. obtained $36 million and $22 million respectively in venture funding.
- U-M VP for Research Stephen Forrest is board chairman of Ann Arbor SPARK, the area’s economic development authority.
- Department of Energy awarded $19.5 million for U-M to create Energy Frontier Research Center for solar power.
- The GM/U-M Institute of Automotive Research and Education is helping to reinvent the automobile through research into the next generation of high-efficiency vehicles.
- U-M and DTE Energy are challenging teams from Michigan universities with $100,000 in prizes to develop business plans to bring new clean energy technologies to market.
- U-M has been awarded over $300 million in stimulus funding through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.