Most incubators at Shands at UF are occupied by newborns, but thanks to an $8.2 million grant, UF is building a different kind of incubator.
The grant for the Florida Innovation Hub, a business center for startup companies, was announced Friday along with plans for building the 45,000-square-foot facility, according to a UF press release.
UF will contribute an additional $5 million to the project and will obtain this money mainly through royalty income earned from sources like faculty research, said Win Phillips, UF's vice president for research.
Scheduled for completion in December 2011, the building will provide office space, laboratories and conference rooms for several budding technological businesses and companies connected to the UF community.
Ed Poppell, UF's vice president of business affairs, said that as soon as planning is finished, workers will begin construction on the facility, which will hopefully be within the next six months.
The building will be constructed on what is now a parking lot on the northeast corner of Shands at AGH site, Poppell said.
The facility will also house UF's Office of Technology Licensing and UF Tech Connect, which finds technology from research that is patentable and promotes the licensing of these technologies to the market.
Phillips said that UF developed the idea of a building a new incubator after seeing the success of a similar hub in Alachua County, which opened in 1995.
He said that various business sectors will use the facility, including chemistry, agricultural and engineering fields.
Phillips said the hub will provide constant communication between companies in the building and people who license technology and the ability to share resources in order to save money.
"There is no question that a company's ability to succeed is far greater in an incubator," he said.
The federal Economic Development Administration awarded the grant, which is one of the largest of its kind ever given by the EDA's Atlanta regional office, said EDA regional representative Philip T. Trader in the press release.
"We expect it to be extremely successful," he said.
Katie Haney, a health education and behavior senior, agrees with Phillips and said she thinks the hub is going to continue to improve the UF business community.
She is also optimistic about the new jobs that these future companies will create for Gainesville residents, she said.
"As a soon-to-be graduate, I think it's a great idea," Haney said. "It's something that is going to make Gainesville an even better place to live."
