UD, Delaware Technology Park and Discover Bank partner on new FinTech building at STAR Campus
Once a nearly blank canvas inviting imagination for what the university of the future may look like, the University of Delaware’s Science Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus is realizing such transformation on a daily basis. Combining top academics and research with industry and community partnerships, a renewed future is shaping in real time at this intersection of discovery, education and innovation, driven by a bold vision for positive impact on the world.

UD, Delaware Technology Park (DTP) and Discover Bank will partner on the construction of a new building that continues the STAR Campus’s march into the future, adding a building block that taps into the evolving world of financial services technology — commonly called FinTech — with an eye on growth for Delaware.

Like the previous construction on STAR Campus, the six-story, 100,000-square feet structure will bring various facets of an industry together under one roof, in this case the academic, business and governmental segments of the financial world.

“Working with DTP and Discover to strengthen Delaware’s growing FinTech sector, the University of Delaware is proud to participate in this public-private partnership, continuing development of knowledge and innovations that help drive our state’s economy,” said UD President Dennis Assanis. “Our University is a national leader in finance, technology and entrepreneurship, so combining our expertise and resources in these complementary fields will yield exciting opportunities for our students and faculty with meaningful impact on society.”

The new FinTech building will add immense value to Delaware’s growing prowess in financial technology. More and more financial services companies are morphing into technology companies. Global investment in FinTech-related companies rose from $18.9 billion in 2013 to $111.8 billion in 2018, according to a recent report by the Delaware Prosperity Partnership.

“We’re working hard in Delaware to support those entrepreneurs and innovators who will keep our state competitive in the 21st century economy, and drive new job creation,” Governor John Carney said. “We’re also good at working together in Delaware, and I am really pleased to see this kind of collaboration between the private sector and the University of Delaware. This partnership at the STAR Campus will help create a pipeline of skilled local talent, support our entrepreneurs, build on our strength in financial technology, and strengthen our economy over the long term.”

By constructing a hub where the financial services industry and academia intersect with technology and innovation, UD, Discover and DTP will contribute to the vitality of Delaware’s economy. UD’s research and instruction in data-related disciplines will create a highly capable workforce to feed the FinTech industry in Delaware, including the start-up businesses that will hatch, grow and spin out of the new facility.

The building will house:

• Spaces for startups to develop and grow, managed by Delaware Technology Park. Tenants will have onsite access to business development resources and technical assistance. 
• Labs and centers associated within UD’s College of Engineering and Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics. These spaces will link strengths and resources from both colleges on topics such as financial analytics, cybersecurity, human-machine learning and data analysis. 
• UD’s Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships (OEIP) will relocate its offices from the Delaware Technology Park’s Innovation Way location.  
• Delaware’s Small Business Development Center, which will be synergistically located to offer assistance to OEIP’s Spin In program. This program connects UD undergraduate students with community entrepreneurs and early-stage startups to give them an inside look at business innovation in action and a chance to apply what they’re learning in real-life situations.

“Delaware Technology Park is excited to launch a new building project on STAR Campus in conjunction with the University of Delaware and funded by Discover Bank,” said Mike Bowman, president and CEO of DTP. “It will contain faculty, students and entrepreneurs with outstanding data science knowledge and digital management competencies as well as support resources for business development and community education.”

The $38 million project will be funded via a favorable below market interest rate loan by Discover Bank to DTP, the owner of the building. UD will lease space in the building.

Discover Bank is currently exploring ways to partner with UD on research related to the financial technology needs of the bank that may include cyber-related technologies, and consumer data analytics, applications and behaviors. A national nonprofit focused on improving the financial health of communities, has partnered with Discover Bank to work with UD, DTP, entrepreneurs and the community on the utilization and testing of financial technologies to improve consumer financial health.

“Discover Bank is dedicated to building stronger communities, which is why we’ve championed this project with the Delaware Technology Park and the University of Delaware to expand economic opportunities, create jobs in financial services and FinTech, and promote financial health for underserved populations,” said Discover Bank President James J. Roszkowski. “The development at STAR helps us realize our vision of creating brighter financial futures for consumers as well as creating new opportunities for the business community.”

The building, which is scheduled for a 2021 opening, will mark the first sizable presence of Lerner College on the STAR Campus. 

“This project will create an excellent opportunity for UD students to explore new frontiers in data-related disciplines including computer and information sciences, computer engineering and financial analytics,” UD Provost Robin Morgan said. “With a focus on setting up our students for success, the UD community will have access to new space for academic growth and the pursuit of employment opportunities in the continuously expanding FinTech industry here in Delaware.”

Potential plans and programs include a cybersecurity leadership center that would link Lerner’s cybersecurity management with the College of Engineering’s cybersecurity engineering and technology, a space for human-machine learning and social media data analysis and a multi-media studio.

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https://deltechpark.org/shaping-the-world-of-financial-services-technology/

Incredible research is happening in #Delaware. Congrats to Prelude Therapeutics on securing $60M in Series B financing. Prelude, working out of the Delaware Innovation Space (@DE_Innovates), is developing drugs to target cancer.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190612005176/en/Prelude-Therapeutics-Secures-60-Million-Expands-Management

#ChooseDelaware #NetDE

The University of Delaware has joined a network of institutions in the Northeast aimed at helping people live longer, healthier lives. DRIVEN, a new accelerator hub for medical entrepreneurship funded by $3.5 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), aims to help people live longer, healthier lives by increasing the number of quality medical startups in the Northeast, decreasing their time to market, and increasing their probability of success.

The DRIVEN Accelerator Hub also includes Celdara Medical, University of Vermont, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Maine Medical Center, Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, University of New Hampshire, University of Rhode Island and Simbex, a medical devices design company.

The yellow states on this map are home to institutions participating in the DRIVEN Accelerator Hub.
It is one of four accelerator hubs across the country funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (part of NIH). Each hub is designed to provide entrepreneurial educational opportunities and experiences for innovators and to develop and implement a structural plan to support medical entrepreneurship.

The UD component of DRIVEN is being led by principal investigator Julius Korley, director of entrepreneurship and strategic partnerships for the College of Engineering and CEO of Affinity Therapeutics; Steven Stanhope, principal investigator of Delaware Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) and associate vice president for research; and Michael Bowman, associate director of the Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships(OEIP).

“This Regional Accelerator Hub grant will focus on turning scientific discoveries into jobs and new small businesses in Delaware and products that reduce the cost and improve the quality of healthcare,” said Stanhope.

The hub is designed to help bring exciting new opportunities to faculty and students.

“Our academic centers are epicenters for innovation and discovery,” Stanhope said. “A main focus of this award is to discover best practices to support faculty and student entrepreneurs in their efforts to spin up new businesses and turn discoveries into impactful products. The award is not designed to replicate existing programs in Delaware. The hub is designed to assist existing programs with advancing to the next level of engagement and impact.”

One of the team’s first projects is a survey to assess the medical entrepreneurial ecosystem and identify pain points for medical entrepreneurs in the First State. This information will help the team create a centralized online hub for entrepreneurs, featuring information on resources from classes to funding opportunities to pitch competitions and more.

“We’re trying to create an ecosystem that can easily be navigated by people who want to commercialize biomedical technology in Delaware,” said Korley. The path to commercialization is especially complex for entrepreneurs in the medical sector, since pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and other inventions must go through not only the patent process, but also the FDA approval process and additional special steps before they hit the market.

When Korley started his first biomedical business, he was fortunate enough to have a mentor with years of experience in the industry. Not everyone has those firsthand connections, but resources such as Delaware’s Small Business Development Center, a unit of OEIP, can help, and the DRIVEN teams aim to connect innovators with the right resources for them.

“Dr. Korley provides outstanding experience and expertise as Delaware’s leader on the award,” said Stanhope. “His remarkable success as a faculty scholar, entrepreneur and small business leader brings great insight and vision to this entrepreneurial and business-focused award. We are very fortunate to have Dr. Korley leading this effort.”

After gathering information and establishing the online resource map for entrepreneurs, DRIVEN will develop new resources to fill identified gaps in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Although it’s too early to say what those offerings will be, they could include for example resources such as short courses or access to business expertise in the biomedical space.

Throughout the process, Korley, Stanhope and Bowman will network with leaders at the other institutions, universities and medical schools participating in the DRIVEN Accelerator Hub.

“The potential for collaboration is great,” said Korley.

NIH’s Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program builds research capacities in states, including Delaware, that historically have had low levels of NIH funding. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island are the other IDeA states in the region, and these states have a storied history of collaboration, said Stanhope.

“Since 2004, the NIH-funded INBRE (IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence) programs of the northeast region IDeA states have partnered in biomedical research and research education activities,” he said. “This unique collaborative environment throughout Delaware and across the northeast region provides a solid foundation for the Regional Accelerator Hub Award.”

UD has been a frequent awardee of competitive grant programs from NIH and the National Science Foundation (NSF) for smaller states, and UD is recognized as a regional leader, said Bowman. Economic development is one anticipated outcome of awardees.

“The DRIVEN Accelerate Hub is one example, spurred by NIH, to amplify an ecosystem of resources and best practices to help academics and entrepreneurs succeed,” Bowman said.

The DRIVEN Accelerator Hub is supported by NIH Grant 1UT2GM130176-01.

https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2019/january/driven-medical-health-accelerator-hub-nih/#

Article ~ Dec 21, 2018 18:10  pm Last night, Junior Achievement of Delaware hosted the induction ceremony of three new members into the Delaware Business Leaders Hall of Fame at the Wilmington Country Club. Founded in 1990, the initiative honors business and community leaders who impact the workforce and economic development of the region.

Green Line Business Group’s first commercial product was Danio Diary, a mobile platform for friends and family members of patients to track medical updates in real time. Now the Newark-based startup is experimenting with another tool for closing the distance between those in need and the people around them who can help.