Pitt.INC >>
From Idea to Practice
with Pitt.INC
All great inventions start with an idea. But the process of turning that idea into a commercial reality can be a challenging, years-long process.
That’s why Pitt.INC is a crucial first step for innovators at the University of Pittsburgh to bring their concepts to improve patient care—whether it’s a pill, antibody, infusion or app—into practice.
What Is Pitt.INC?
Pitt Idea Navigation to Commercialization (Pitt.INC) is a program that offers University of Pittsburgh faculty, postdocs, students and staff funding, community and a simplified process to enter ideas into the commercialization pathway.
How Can Pitt.INC Help You?
By kickstarting the development of ideas into products, Pitt.INC adds value to ideas and boosts their potential for successful commercialization and societal impact.
Learn More About Pitt.INC
Interesting in learning more or have questions? Join our webinar on April 25 from 12PM – 1PM.
Pitt Accessible
Open to Pitt faculty, postdocs, students, staff.
*Up to $50K Awards
Flexible awards, projects timelines less than 1 year.
Life-Science Focus
Must focus on challenges in human health & disease.
* For Health Sciences faculty.
Pitt.INC Details
Pitt.INC, a collaboration between Pitt’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) and the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences, is designed to test scientific hypotheses that may have commercial value. The program is part of the University’s larger initiative to accelerate ideas and discoveries identified in the lab closer to products and treatments for patients.
If your project already has an invention disclosure on file with Pitt’s OIE or existing proof-of-concept data, please view other programs offered by the office that may be more suited to your project.
Participants
- Open to University members in Pitt’s Schools of the Health Sciences including faculty, postdocs, students and staff.
- Postdocs, students and staff must identify a Pitt faculty member to serve as the principal investigator.
Project Criteria
- Life sciences-related projects with unmet needs or challenges in human health and disease.
- Must support the further development or validation of intellectual property owned by the University.
- Must be unencumbered from other obligations that would prevent the University from moving forward with commercialization.
- Should be available for licensing and not subject to any pre-existing options, licenses or corporate-sponsored research agreements.
- Projects with funding from another source to complete the same work are not eligible.
- Under certain circumstances, Pitt.INC funding may be used to advance ideas developed in collaboration with another research institution. Applicants are required to identify collaborators from other institutions in their application.
Application & Review Process
- Accepted on a rolling basis via Pitt InfoReady.
- Applications are reviewed by OIE for program eligibility before being presented to the Pitt.INC Board.
- Applicants may be asked for more information before and/or during the review process.
Project Selection & Award Funding
- Funding selection by the Pitt.INC Board.
- Eligible ideas presented to the Pitt.INC Board for scientific and commercial review. The timeline for the Pitt.INC Board review may vary depending on the volume of applications submitted.
- Promising projects are further reviewed by the Pitt.INC external review panel to finalize experimental plans, timelines and budgets. Project plans may take 6-10 weeks to finalize.
- Final project plans and budgets are reviewed by the Pitt.INC Board and award decisions are made.
Post-Funding Expectations
- 1-2 quantifiable technical/scientific milestones designed to validate or invalidate a scientific hypothesis.
- Projects are expected to start within one month of the award date and should have timelines no longer than 12 months.
- Applicants should ensure their timelines are appropriate for the proposed studies.
- Funding is managed by the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences and is cost-reimbursable based on the approved project plan.
Awardee Expectations
- Required to actively engage with Pitt’s OIE.
- Regular reports on project progress, leveraging support from Pitt’s innovation and commercialization ecosystem.
- Communications include a project kickoff meeting, progress reports, update meetings and a final report.
- During the award period, awardees agree to not pursue industry-sponsored research opportunities to support the funded technology.
What’s Next?
- When a Pitt.INC project reaches the end of the program, awardees are required to submit an invention disclosure to Pitt’s OIE.
- Awardees will discuss their invention disclosure with an OIE licensing manager and coordinate an intellectual property management plan.
- Awardees will be connected to the larger innovation and commercialization ecosystem that exists at the University to drive their projects towards societal impact.
“Pitt innovators have repeatedly transformed medicine, often starting with early-stage ideas needing support. Pitt.INC will provide funding and access to our innovation ecosystem, accelerating promising ideas toward real-world impact through commercial translation.”
Evan Facher PhD, MBA
Innovation Institute | School of Medicine
Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Pittsburgh
& Associate Dean for Commercial Translation in the School of Medicine
