Are you a grad student, faculty, or staff member with a unique curriculum, cutting-edge technology, or an innovative idea? Do you have unique expertise or services to offer external partners?
Join UMaine's Office of Innovation & Economic Development for the Commercialization Training Series, a collection of professional development workshops aimed at walking you through the process of defining your idea to delivering a product or service to the world and working with external partners. Participants can earn a completion certificate by attending all four core workshops and two electives.
RSVP to the event date that corresponds with the workshop you would like to attend.
All Commercialization Series workshops will be held online, so once you RSVP, we will send you a link to attend via Zoom.
Core Workshops
1. Kick-Off to Commercialization- 9/22
- Learn the fundamentals of research commercialization in a university setting, understand the various pathways to the marketplace, get exposure to campus resources designed to assist faculty, and learn about additional professional development offerings planned for the year.
2. Idea Validation- 10/8
- New innovations based on cutting-edge research have a high failure rate because they focus on the wrong needs or even the wrong end user. During this "Idea Validation" workshop, you will learn how you can use Innovation Engineering tools to test your assumptions and validate that they align with end user needs, wants, and expectations.
Elective Workshops
1. Start-Up Guide for Faculty, Researchers, and Innovators- 10/29
- This workshop is designed to help you navigate the startup pathway from market validation to managing conflicts and fundraising. Learn about the resources and programs available through UMaine, with special attention to startups based on university innovations.
2. Commercialization in Education, Humanities, & Social Sciences- 12/3
- A common myth is that research commercialization is mostly restricted to only STEM related disciplines. This workshop breaks that myth by exploring opportunities to create an impact by commercializing research areas in education, humanities and social sciences. Learn about institutional and external support available to support commercialization activities such as licensing, educational toolkits, publishing, startup companies and industry partnerships among others.
