Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region

An EDA-supported University Center grant will expand the Northern Kentucky University Collaborative for Economic Engagement (the Collaborative), a one-stop shared-services central innovation hub for businesses and entrepreneurs, to include a targeted IHI Initiative for Health Care Entrepreneurship and Innovation (IHEI).

With the backing of the Life Science wet lab in Covington and regional anchor bioscience and health-related industries, IHEI promises to strengthen Northern Kentucky’s bioscience and health innovation ecosystem by providing skill development and work force training in STEM, healthcare, and entrepreneurship; applied research for economic development; mentoring for commercialization; and targeted entrepreneurial support for founders.

Initiative for Health Entrepreneurship and Innovation
112 Pike Street
Covington, KY 41011

Email: pulsfortl1@nku.edu
Local: (859) 572-7877

IHEI In Action

The Initiative for Health Entrepreneurship and Innovation will:

Expand accelerator for health-related companies to include special cohorts focused on wet lab space applicants.
Create a reverse mentoring program for health care systems to recruit the businesses they need to ensure post-COVID success.
Evolve its Entrepreneur-in-Residence program to support wet lab clientele.
Scholarship NKU’s graduate certificates in Clinical Trials Research and Health Care Commercialization for regional attendees.
Provide paid internships from Biological Sciences, Cybersecurity, Health Informatics, and Entrepreneurship to support wet lab clients and medico-health-related startups.

It will also support:

Economic forecasting through NKU’s Center for Economic Analysis and Development
Legal assistance through NKU’s Chase Law Clinical for Small Businesses and Non-profits and partner law firm DBL,
Patent support through NKU’s Patent & Trademark Resource Center, and
Additional support for entrepreneurs through the Collaborative.
The IHEI will help provide the tools that bioscience and health-related entrepreneurs need to thrive-knowledge, data, talent, and capital.

Grant

The EDA University Center grant will allow NKU’s Institute for Health Innovation to nurture the region’s medico-health entrepreneurship ecosystem through mentoring for commercialization;targeted entrepreneurial support programs for founder’s skill development; applied research in economic development; and workforce training in STEM, health care and entrepreneurship.

Our Partners

Our Team

Doug Ladd

Entrepreneur-in-Residence
laddd1@nku.edu

Rico Grant

NKY-HII Managing Director
rico@socapaccelerate.com

Lauren Pulsfort

NKU Collaborative Programs Manager

(859) 572-7877
pulsfortl1@nku.edu

Highlights from SoCap Accelerate

4M+ in Capital Raised

1000s of Connections and
Coaching Sessions

100s of hours of Pro
Bono legal and accounting services

1 company accepted
into TechStars

We always will need money, but leveraging the social capital of the network is invaluable. It leads to connections, money, and expertise we could not have gotten elsewhere.

TERRY WALL
CAREFEED

Doug Ladd, our EIR, has been very busy this past year. He has engaged with 34 companies ranging from inventors with a new concept to those now selling their new products and looking for capital to help fund their expansion plans. These companies have created approximately 150 new jobs in the region. He helped nine of them land $22.3 million from investors. He also helped later-stage companies plan for clinical studies, develop marketing strategies, and assess new product development opportunities.

Initiative for Health Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Our Partners

Our Team

Highlights from SoCap Accelerate

The Institute for Health Innovation

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