Award-Winning Contributions to Baltimore’s Business Community

Award-Winning Contributions to Baltimore’s Business Community

Since its inception in 1989, more than 100 companies have been supported by bwtech@UMBC Incubator and Accelerator. Eighty percent of these companies are still in business, and 85 percent are located in Maryland. The Incubator and Accelerator recently received the 2008 New Directions Award for its positive contributions to Baltimore County’s economy through the many successful companies it has launched. Presented by the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce, this award honors a company or organization that exemplifies the quality of Baltimore County businesses.

Half of the Incubator and Accelerator’s 35 companies are in the life sciences and nearly all are developing innovative technologies. Of the 250 employees at the Incubator and Accelerator, 22 are UMBC alumni and 75 percent of its companies have hired UMBC student interns. A recent “Techpreneur” internship and job fair, held in conjunction with Global Entrepreneurship Week, brought students and CEOs together for a night of networking and career exploration.

bwtech@UMBC’s strength is its natural synergy with the university’s research-oriented environment. Current companies have engaged in more than 100 formal research collaborations, joint grant funding opportunities, formal or informal consulting agreements, adjunct appointments, technology license agreements, CEO/founder relationships or have utilized faculty or facilities at UMBC research centers.

The bwtech@UMBC incubator program is an active component of entrepreneurship training programs across the UMBC campus. The bwtech staff, including Executive Director Ellen Hemmerly, has been a key component in the successful ACTiVATE program,which trains mid-career women to form businesses based on technologies developed at area universities and research institutions. In its first three full years of the program, ACTiVATE has trained 72 women and launched 15 companies.

(12/18/08)

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