More than 100 startup companies have been launched based on research conducted in Harvard labs during the past five years alone. Those new ventures have raised $4.4 billion in equity financing and created countless jobs.
But campus-based research has the potential for even greater impact. A new initiative is designed to help speed up the translation of innovations from University labs into startups that bring to market products and services addressing climate change, alternative energy, sustainability, and a range of other global challenges.
Housed in the Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) in Allston and focused on the physical sciences and engineering across the University, the Harvard Grid will enable entrepreneurially minded Harvard researchers and students to translate their research into startups.
The Grid will advance its educational mission by integrating innovation and entrepreneurship into the curricular and co-curricular life of SEAS. Workshops, lectures by subject-matter experts, and other community programming will help students, postdocs, and faculty build entrepreneurship and translational skills, expose participants to leaders from relevant fields, and engage the broader community of startups, industry, investors, and alumni.
The Grid’s location in Allston will add to an emerging node on the region’s innovation ecosystem that includes Harvard Business School, the Harvard i-lab, the Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab, and the coming Enterprise Research Campus. With its state-of-the-art labs, makerspace, specialized science instrumentation, and hands-on teaching spaces, the SEC sits at the center of this burgeoning district.