The U.K. was in the house at the Cove @ UCI!
UCI Beall Applied Innovation recently hosted a Life Science Showcase event, organized by the Greater Irvine Chamber, for 12 invited life science-focused companies from the United Kingdom to discuss opportunities for the companies to expand their reach into the U.S. This included ways to get involved with the UC Irvine (UCI) startup community and information on the UCI campus resources and intellectual property (IP) and Orange County’s growing community of startup companies.
“We are very interested in working with life science companies,” said Richard Sudek, UCI Beall Applied Innovation executive director and UCI chief innovation officer. “We have over 400 medical device companies in Orange County. One-third of UCI IP is in the medical area. There are a lot of resources here in Orange County to collaborate with … as well as companies big and small.”
Representatives from University Lab Partners (ULP) talked about the benefits of the coworking wet lab space in the new location. ULP, a nonprofit program of the Beall Family Foundation, is a biomedical wet lab incubator that provides professional coworking space to innovators. The space will be housed within Applied Innovation’s new location and will provide startups in Southern California with easier access to wet lab facilities.
“We are working in partnership with Beall Applied Innovation,” said Karin Koch, ULP ecosystem director. “We are completely independent, nonprofit … one of the important things about us is we don’t take any IP from any of the companies that incubate with us.”
ULP’s wet lab space will also offer life science-focused startup companies access to resources such as a tissue culture lab, freezer farm, micro/spectroscopy, prototyping and UCI technical resources.
Applied Innovation will be moving into the larger space on November 18 with current and new tenants, startups and staff. Stay tuned for an announcement on the official grand opening.
Learn more about the Cove @ UCI, Applied Innovation’s collaborative space that connects innovation partners at UCI and Orange County.
View more photos from the event on Applied Innovation’s Flickr album.
Main photo: Richard Sudek, UCI Beall Applied Innovation executive director and UCI chief information officer, talks about Applied Innovation’s new location with 12 life-science companies from the U.K.
Photo: Rthura Cevallos
