University of California, Irvine, is creating a new campuswide center that aims to speed up commercialization of its research and support technology development.
The new initiative—called the Institute for Innovation—will operate in conjunction with UC Irvine’s existing research- and technology-oriented arms, including the Office of Technology Alliances, which manages the school’s patents, licensing agreements and inventions.
“To make sure that our innovators among faculty and students are in relationship with a lively entrepreneurial community is extremely important for us, especially given that we in Orange County are in one of the most entrepreneurial parts of the world,” said UC Irvine Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Howard Gillman. “This has to be a strategic priority for us.”
The school has started a national search for an executive director to head the Institute for Innovation. It expects to fill the post by the end of the academic year, Gillman said.
It also will put together a board of advisers, “a mix of faculty, staff and community members who care about the success of this mission,” he said.
A $5 million endowment from the Beall Family Foundation in Newport Beach provided the initial funding for the institute.
“We’re going to be trying to inspire our supporters to help us build on the work that the Beall Foundation has done, to see if we can … expand the institute with the help and support of people who believe this is important,” Gillman said.
The Beall Family Foundation is among the largest private foundations in Orange County, according to the Business Journal’s most recent list of such institutions. It ranked No. 5 on the Business Journal’s 2013 list, with nearly $7 million in giving during the 2011 calendar year, the latest figure available.
The foundation has given to UC Irvine before, including a $6.6 million endowment in 2007 for the Don Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, part of the university’s Paul Merage School of Business.
UCI also is home to the Beall Center for Art + Technology in the school of the arts.
“I think that for our region to reach its full potential, we need a great epicenter of a research university,” said Donald Beall, the foundation’s benefactor. “We have that in UCI, including its medical and the arts and the other traditional areas. Innovation is not just in tech schools. The idea is to make it easier for this to happen, and I’m delighted to be able to help.”
Rockwell
Beall is former chief executive of Rockwell, where he spent 30 years, including 10 as president and another 10 as chairman and chief executive.
Beall retired in 1998 and is currently chairman emeritus of Rockwell.
UC Irvine’s Institute for Innovation will initially use existing space at the university, and there is no renovation or construction currently planned, Gillman said.
“But as we think about what this could be in the next three to five years, we could possibly think of expanding physical space,” he said.
