As the Houston region focuses on creating more bioscience, energy and other startup companies, the University of Houston is opening a 13,000-square-foot wet lab business incubator to complement expanded space next door.
The facilities, located in the University’s Energy Research Park at 5000 Gulf Freeway, will be showcased during an open house Thursday, Sept. 1. Registration and networking begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Innovation Center, second floor of Building 4. Tours begin at 6:30 p.m.
Ken Jones, interim director of the Center for Industrial Partnerships at UH and director of the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship, said the space is available to startup companies launched by UH students, faculty, alumni and also to companies launched by people with no previous ties to the University. The Innovation Center in Building 4 offers meeting, communal and office space with month-to-month leases and no deadline on how long a business can remain, he said.
While most companies currently in Building 4 have ties to the University, Jones said he’d like to see about half of tenants from outside.
The Innovation Lab, located next door in Building 5, has ready-to-use lab space designed to support chemical, materials and life sciences startups, with 28 fume hoods and 250 lab benches.
But Jones said the Innovation Center and Lab offer more than physical space. Startups also are eligible for support from the University’s Division of Research, which provides workshops and training for entrepreneurs, as well as help applying for funding from the federal Small Business Innovation Research and other programs.
Representatives from several companies already in the space will be at the open house, including FusionSports, which targets social media marketing to teens; WAVVE Stream Inc., which produces a filtering technology to remove contaminants from water, and REEcycle, which retrieves rare earth elements from hard drives and other electronic waste.
Integricote, the first UH nanotechnology spinoff, also will participate, demonstrating their technology at company offices in Building 7. The company will end the event with a drawing for $1,000 worth of material and labor provided by Integricote.
Companies in the incubator also will have access to mentors, people with established business credentials to help guide them. “We will have everything to increase the odds of success,” Jones said.
WHAT: Open house for UH Innovation Lab and Innovation Center, showcasing new facilities
available to startup companies.
WHEN: 5:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1
WHERE: UH Energy Research Park, 5000 Gulf Freeway, Building 4. Directions and link to
registration are available here.
MEDIA CONTACT: Jeannie Kever, 713-743-0778, m – 713-504-3769, jekever@uh.edu