ANN ARBOR – The Midwest Research University Network (MRUN) an informal working committee of business development professionals from 19 major Midwest Research institutions is partnering with the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium for the third year. MRUN works at the intersection of startup business development and university research.
MRUN was established in 2002 as an alliance of like-minded university professionals responsible for commercializing technology startups spun out of university research. These professionals took advantage of their relative geographic proximity and began meeting quarterly to explore how they could cooperate to address common problems in startup business development and exchange information on:
Angel and seed?stage financing
Placement of management talent
Opportunities for collaboration
?MRUN’s involvement has helped to bring a broader regional focus to the conference as well as providing conference planners with connections to emerging university-research-based companies,?? said David Brophy, Director, Center for Venture Capital and Private Equity Finance, Ross School of Business, The University of Michigan. ?There is a tremendous base of university research in the Midwest and gaining access to the ideas talent and startup companies associated with this research across the Midwest provides a significant lure to our returning attendees.?
While MRUN works closely with patent and licensing officers in their respective institutions, the focus is on start?up enterprise development as an important element on university technology transfer and local economic development. Through its efforts, MRUN also seeks to draw attention to the significance of Research universities to the Midwest’s technology base.
MRUN was formed on May 6, 2002, by professionals from seven Midwestern universities who met in Chicago to exchange ideas about how they could better commercialize startups founded on university technology. At that time, these institutions collectively accounted for $2.5 billion in research annually. The universities and the people involved were:
University of Wisconsin?Madison – Allen Dines
University of Minnesota. – Dick Sommerstad
University Mich. – Karen Studer?Rabeler
Northwestern University – Jeff Coney & Nancy Sullivan
University of Chicago/Argonne – Bob Rosenberg
University of Illinois at Chicago – Dave Gulley
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. – Mike Fritz & Jim Weyenhenmeyer
Many ideas emerged from the discussion but the top items on the list included:
Sharing ideas about best practices,
Sharing leads re candidates for startup management teams,
Building a regional inventory of angel and seed capital investors,
Creating a listing of pre?seed and seed investment opportunities within the region,
Creating a venue where seed?stage investors and others could access information about our respective startup activities and investment opportunities.
Such a consortium has the potential to contribute significantly in creating a center of gravity for technology commercialization and therefore attract investors from all over the world said Dr. Brophy.
To learn more, click on MRUN
