NIH funds UK, XLerateHealth partnership on digital learning platform
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 18, 2022) — XLerateHealth (XLH), a national health care accelerator based in Louisville, Kentucky, in partnership with the University of Kentucky through UK Innovate, has been awarded the first phase of a potential $3.25 million multiyear grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through the IDeA Regional Entrepreneurship Development (I-RED) Program. The purpose of the grant is to develop and launch a suite of experience-based entrepreneurship and commercialization training tools to address the needs of academic institutions across the Southeast U.S., including faculty, researchers, innovators and students.
XLH and UK have led this effort since 2018 through the XLerator Network, an NIH-funded partnership to increase the commercialization of promising life science and health care innovations in 25 academic institutions across the Southeast Institutional Development Award (IDeA) states of Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, West Virginia and Puerto Rico. This NIH I-RED award will allow XLerator Network participants to build on prior work and develop, launch, test and validate entrepreneurship education and training tools that foster the translation of promising biomedical discoveries and technologies from research laboratories into commercial products.
“Based on our years of experience training biomedical entrepreneurs, we believe that effective entrepreneurial pedagogy is a combination of four elements: 1) informed high-quality educational content, 2) mentorship and coaching from experienced domain experts and entrepreneurs, 3) access to experienced talent to build a cohesive team, and 4) access to capital to fund the successful refinement of the technology/product and its commercial launch into the marketplace,” said Jackie Willmot, CEO of XLerateHealth. “We are proud to continue this collaboration and grateful to the NIH I-RED program for its support in bringing these resources to academic and clinician innovators.”
“Through the XLerator Network, our partnership with more than two-dozen academic institutions in the Southeast IDeA region has created a framework for learning, testing and applying entrepreneurship and commercialization best practices to advance the most promising health innovations in the region,” said Ian McClure, associate vice president for research, innovation and economic impact at UK. “UK Innovate is thrilled that the NIH I-RED program will now catalyze that foundation and generate new education, mentorship, coaching and commercialization tools for those partners and the region. As the academic lead institution for this new award, we are proud of this partnership and thank the NIH I-RED program leadership for its support.”
Through the I-RED program, the XLerator Network will build on a solid foundation of online resources and tools developed over the past nine years by XLH, UK and their other academic partners. The new educational tools and online resources developed via I-RED will add to the network’s portfolio of entrepreneurial and commercialization products offered to biomedical researchers and innovators interested in bringing promising biomedical technologies from the bench to the marketplace.
About XLerateHealth (XLH)
The XLerateHealth (XLH) mission is to cultivate and grow impactful health care innovation in the Midwest, Southeast and other areas of the country where great innovation often goes unrecognized and underfunded. Founded in 2012, XLH supports the development of health care innovation through its health care accelerator, which helps startup founders commercialize their business and attract funding. XLerateHealth also leads the efforts to build and operate the XLerator Network, an NIH-funded partnership with Academic Lead University of Kentucky along with 24 other academic institutions in the Southeast. The objective of this work is to increase the commercialization of promising life science and health care innovations in the NIH-designated Southeast Institutional Development Award (IDeA) states. www.xleratehealth.com
About UK Innovate
UK Innovate is the innovation, entrepreneurship and economic enterprise for University of Kentucky Research. Through technology commercialization, corporate partnerships, social innovation, innovation training and economic development initiatives related to UK’s research innovations, talent and community, UK Innovate works to move ideas into the world faster, where they can make the greatest social and economic impact possible. www.research.uky.edu/ukinnovate
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UT2GM148083. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.