Seeing an opening to expand the research enterprise into exciting new areas, UNMC leaders are launching a new initiative to strengthen UNMC’s connections to private industry – and grow research dollars.
The new UNMC Office of Industry Engagement, under a new director of strategic partnerships for UNMC, will lead a more coordinated approach to interacting with the biomedical research industry.
The office will become a liaison between UNMC and research collaborators in private industry and also serve as a front door when those potential partners see an opportunity to work with UNMC, said Ken Bayles, PhD, UNMC’s vice chancellor for research.
It will be designed to serve as both a strategic partner with industry and an operational hub to promote research collaboration and product development.
Dr. Bayles and UNMC Interim Chancellor H. Dele Davies, MD, announced the Office of Industry Engagement at a research town hall held Oct. 22 at the Catalyst building in the EDGE District.
Dr. Davies said UNMC has great promise to grow its connections with business and industry – and he highlighted the opening of the Catalyst building and new CORE research building under construction.
The Office of Industry Engagement now will foster those industry partnerships across the country, he said.
“This is going to allow us to get to the next level,” Dr. Davies said.
With the federal research funding landscape shifting, industry grants and contracts have served as a developing strength for UNMC. Thanks to growing participation in industry-sponsored clinical trials, UNMC increased its private research funding more than 70% in the last fiscal year.
Over the past several years, UNMC has focused its resources so it can be more quick to work with industry-sponsored research. Building upon the work of the Clinical Research Center and clinical trials teams, the new office also will expand opportunities for patients, said Russell McCulloh, MD, UNMC associate vice chancellor for clinical research.
In announcing the new Office of Industry Engagement, Dr. Bayles acknowledged UNMC is in a period of fiscal restraint. But he made a point of specifying that funding for the office is not tied to reductions or resources redirected from other colleges, institutes or programs.
To establish the Office of Industry Engagement, UNMC will leverage a share of its funding from industry-sponsored clinical trials. Projections estimate that new revenue generated by the office will pay off the initial investment within five years.
“We’re going to lean into industry partnerships in a really intentional way,” Dr. Bayles said. “If we coordinate our approach and have an experienced leader to build partnerships between industry and academia, we believe we can ramp up our industry engagement significantly.”
The new office grew out of a strategic assessment that the UNMC Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research began in February. Out of those discussions, research leaders determined that UNMC needed a more resilient research enterprise with a more diversified portfolio of funding sponsors.
The Office of Industry Engagement will immediately address known funding gaps and boost UNMC’s competitiveness, Dr. Bayles said.
Once it is established, he said, the office also will partner with UNeMed and UNeTech in developing UNMC’s intellectual property and capitalize on the scientific expertise and resources of some of UNMC’s core laboratory services, including building capacity to meet laboratory practice compliance in line with the industry standards.
As part of the initiative, the UNMC Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research will create a Faculty Innovation Council, with faculty from across colleges and institutes serving as advisors. The new council will inform strategy and help prioritize resources for faculty who are new to industry-sponsored research and ensure initiatives remain faculty-centric.
He sees that Faculty Innovation Council working in tune with the Office of Industry Engagement and Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research to lead the initiative.