The University of Michigan (UM) is shifting into high gear the transformation of its North Campus Research Complex (NCRC) into the central hub of the university’s research and commercialization activities. The goal is to double UM’s $1 billion in annual research spending in 10 years and increase the number of start-ups and for-profit jobs created by commercializing university-developed technologies. Speaking to a group of VCs and entrepreneurs at the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium in Ypsilanti, Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, MD, CEO of the University of Michigan Health System, said the university will need about $200 million over the next three years to recruit faculty researchers, finance multidisciplinary research projects, and reopen shuttered lab space at the NCRC, which is the former home of Pfizer’s R&D center. The university acquired the property last summer for about $108 million. The site occupies 174 acres, including 29 acres of vacant land and about two million square feet of office and lab space.
Near-term plans include moving UM’s Office of Technology Transfer, Business Engagement Center, and recently formed Michigan Venture Center to the NCRC from leased space. Ken Nisbet, executive director of UM’s TTO, says the university plans to transform the NCRC into the central hub for the university’s private sector, tech transfer, spinoff, and venture activities. He hopes to complete the transition of the venture center into the NCRC within a year. Preliminary plans are to secure about 10,000 square feet within the former Pfizer facility to include a larger-scale business accelerator. The proposed accelerator would expand the school’s relationship with the venture community by housing entrepreneurs, VCs, angel investors, mentors-in-residence, and others involved with the creation of start-ups based on technologies developed at the university, Nisbet says.
Source: Crain’s Detroit Business