Education
The process of translating biomedical discoveries to patient care is often long, difficult and risky. Healthcare professionals and biomedical researchers often receive little training in entrepreneurship and how to transform an idea into a product ready for commercialization. Too often, busy medical professionals are so focused on bench or bedside responsibilities that the prospect of harnessing the commercial potential of their discoveries is not foremost in their thoughts.
Mayo Clinic Research Innovation provides Mayo Clinic's innovators with the knowledge and resources they need, bridging the gap in entrepreneurship knowledge and reducing barriers to innovation. Focusing on the commercialization of discoveries can add efficiency to the process and bring innovations to market more quickly to benefit patients, healthcare professionals and health systems.
Mayo Clinic Research Innovation provides microgrants, strategic mentorship and access to external entities for support. The team also provides workshops and competitions to help innovators learn about innovation ideation, value proposition and customer discovery and equip them with the skills to help them examine ideas further.
Opportunities include:
- Pitch competitions. Innovators pitch their ideas to win funding from a panel of judges in an interactive and competitive format.
- Innovation Workshops. These workshops foster creativity and entrepreneurial thinking within Mayo Clinic's research community. They help researchers, clinicians and other staff members understand and apply key methodologies that drive successful innovations in healthcare. The workshops focus on three essential areas: customer discovery, business models and Lean Startup methodology.
- Leader Launch. This 21-day program helps people achieve unprecedented personal and professional growth in a short period of time. It propels Mayo Clinic professionals to new heights of effectiveness and trains them to navigate high-risk, high-reward goals with confidence.
- SBIR/STTR grant programs. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) offers Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant programs to help innovative small businesses achieve key research and development milestones ahead of commercializing health-related technologies. The programs offer excellent opportunities for Mayo innovators to obtain competitive NIH funding for entrepreneurship activities related to advancing human health.
Other opportunities include informational webinars about grant programs. See the calendar for dates of these offerings.