The Penn Center for Innovation (PCI), which opened in 2014 (Almanac, July 15, 2014) and is located at 3600 Civic Center Boulevard next to CHOP, helps to translate Penn discoveries and ideas into new products and businesses by facilitating connections with the private sector. 

Whether the end result is a technology license, a research and development alliance, the formation of a new venture, or an integrated combination of many different business development activities, PCI serves as a dedicated one-stop shop for commercial partnering with Penn. See www.pci.upenn.edu for more information.

The Penn I-Corps Site is an National Science Foundation (NSF)–sponsored program at Penn designed to facilitate commercialization of University research for as many as 30 faculty-student teams per year.

The Innovator’s Help Desk provides a convenient and user friendly interface where faculty and researchers can easily and quickly access a variety of resources to help support their intellectual property and business development interests.

The PCI Fellows program provides support for the commercial assessment of new technologies disclosed to PCI. Penn graduate students and post-doctoral fellows are welcome to apply.

UPadvisors, managed by PCI Ventures, empowers students, faculty and staff in their entrepreneurial endeavors by assisting and advising them on the path to commercialization.

PCIV is dedicated to supporting technology commercialization within the Penn community. Since 2010, PCIV has worked with over 200 faculty and staff members to form and launch new companies based on selected inventions and innovative technologies. By connecting local entrepreneurs, investors and partners with Penn inventors, PCIV adds a powerful platform for a larger entrepreneurial ecosystem in greater Philadelphia and beyond.

UPstart, managed by the PCI Ventures, a division of PCI, provides the Penn community with the means and support to launch businesses, in direct partnership with Penn, based on their promising ideas and research.

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PCI By the Numbers 

FY 2019

708 patent applications filed

97 US patents issued

$104 million received for industry-sponsored research agreements

14 PCI-facilitated Penn spinouts

$260 million funds raised or received by Penn-affiliated startups

722 executed commercial agreements

$114 million in annual licensing revenue

40+ Pennovation Center resident companies

50+ partnering meetings with major corporations

45 educational events hosted

97 PCI press highlights

This article is related to the PCI Innovation Awards article.