CHAMPAIGN, Ill. The University of Illinois will hold a groundbreaking ceremony Monday (Nov. 19) for its new technology incubator, a facility that will give faculty and students the opportunity to explore commercialization options for their research.
Chancellor Nancy Cantor and Paul Bohn, the interim vice chancellor for research, will host the ceremony at the UI South Research Park, 1816 S. Oak St., Champaign, from
3 to 4:30 p.m. The incubator is to be built at the corner of Hazelwood Drive and Oak Street in the South Research Park area. Construction of the two-story, 43,000 square-foot building will begin later this month with completion scheduled for November 2002.
The incubator will offer a variety of resources to assist early-stage technology companies. For example, companies will receive help with business planning, market research, human resources, and seed and venture-capital funding. Incubator companies will have access to mentoring support and other external resources to assist in their development.
The program also will refer or provide access to professional, facility and university services, which include connectivity, shared services and shared equipment. Program participants will have access to wet labs, shared lab equipment rooms, office and conference rooms and shared tenant service space. These combined services will provide incubator companies with a low-cost environment close to campus.
Established companies can use the incubator as a possible resource for finding technologies complementary to their primary markets. The incubator also will create additional jobs for students, alumni and other members of the university community.
As the incubator companies mature, they can become stand-alone tenants in the UIs Research Parks, which will serve as environments to nurture businesses.
