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The von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement at UC San Diego (vonliebig.ucsd.edu) is
focused on accelerating technology transfer and commercialization through programs and education on entrepreneurism.
Technology Acceleration Projects (TAPs) that offer pre-venture grants and extensive mentoring on technology
commercialization are a key component of its model which has been developed over the past ten years with the support
of a grant from the von Liebig Foundation.
In 2010, the von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center partnered with the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology
Research Center (TATRC), to develop a regional model of Technology Acceleration Program initially focused on
military research to be deployed across the nation to increase awareness of military medical needs and to accelerate the
commercialization of novel technologies to treat the patient.
Participants to these challenges are multi-disciplinary teams of graduate students and faculty in engineering, medicine
and business representing universities and research institutes in a region, selected via a competitive process, who receive
commercialization assistance and funding grants to support translation of their research discoveries into products or
services.
To validate this model, a pilot program focused on commercialization of wireless healthcare technologies targeting
campuses in Southern California has been conducted with the additional support of Qualcomm, Inc. Three projects
representing three different universities in Southern California were selected out of forty five applications from ten
different universities and research institutes. Over the next twelve months, these teams will conduct proof of concept
studies, technology development and preliminary market research to determine the commercial feasibility of their
technologies. This first regional program will help build the needed tools and processes to adapt and replicate this model
across other regions in the Country.
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