UK Innovation Connect, a focus area for UK Innovate at the University of Kentucky, provides dedicated resources and services to support University of Kentucky (UK) research and innovation outcomes that impact corporate partners and promote economic development in our ecosystem.
“UK Innovation Connect was created to optimize our capacity to match industry needs with research and innovation opportunities connected to the University of Kentucky. In addition, this program supports our ability to fulfill our land grant mission, increasing the university’s value proposition to the innovation economy of Kentucky,” said Ian McClure, associate vice president for innovation and economic impact and executive director for UK Innovate at the University of Kentucky. “Partnering with industry and economic development stakeholders to advance societal problems through research and innovation is an enormous yet challenging opportunity. Therefore, we needed a dedicated team to execute that opportunity at full steam for UK and the commonwealth.”
Learn more about UK Innovation Connect in the following Q&A with Executive Director Landon Borders.
Why did you choose this role?
I spent the last 20 years of my career as a product developer bringing new ideas to life that solve problems and positively impact people’s lives. I saw this role as a platform for applying my experience and leadership toward making a much broader impact on the commonwealth of Kentucky and our many corporate partners worldwide through the University of Kentucky’s vast research enterprise.
How does UK Innovation Connect benefit UK researchers and corporate partners?
UK Innovation Connect benefits our innovators by enhancing our competitiveness for collaborative sponsored research funding and taking a proactive approach to identifying partnership opportunities for research and innovation. Our corporate partners benefit by using UK’s research resources and infrastructure to solve complex problems relevant to their businesses. Most importantly, we all win when our research outcomes truly impact our people, businesses, communities and economy.
Tell us about the UK Innovation Connect team.
The UK Innovation Connect program was established in March of 2022. We’ve been focused on strategically building the team to support some of our most active research areas at the university. In 2022, we hired our first UK Innovation Connect manager, Kim Sayre, who exclusively supports our College of Engineering. In early 2023, we will add other managers to support our College of Medicine and College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. We will continue in this manner to the extent that we are providing highly effective and responsive support to our innovators and corporate partners where needed the most.
What things are you most excited about with UK Innovation Connect?
The University of Kentucky’s research enterprise continues to grow, and our capabilities continue to expand. Our research awards have had a compound annual growth rate of 8.6% since 2015. One area where those research outcomes are expected to impact our partners is through technology transfer led by my colleagues with the Office of Technology Commercialization. We have a top-notch team exceptional at conveying UK’s intellectual property outcomes toward societal impacts. I’m also excited to see how our program will enhance the overall impact on our communities across the commonwealth and our corporate partners worldwide. I firmly believe in the power of collaboration and transdisciplinary approaches to solving problems, which requires building relationships within the University of Kentucky ecosystem and with our partners at other universities and colleges throughout the region. Together, we will do great things for Kentucky.
What is the Kentucky Innovator Challenge?
I cannot tell you how excited I am about our inaugural Kentucky Innovator Challenge, a one-day event held on April 11, 2023, in Lexington, Kentucky. We are bringing corporate leaders from across Kentucky together with our UK innovators and other community partners to discuss the most significant challenges our commonwealth businesses are facing that are best solved through collaborative research. We have several presenters and keynote speakers lined up who we plan to announce soon.
What do you hope to accomplish with this event?
We aim to forge new relationships and inspire our innovation community to partner with our Kentucky businesses to solve those complex problems together. We are also planning for representatives from federal funding agencies to attend and discuss various research grant programs available for this collaborative research.
What does success look like for UK Innovation Connect over the next five years?
Of course, I want to see the University of Kentucky be world-renowned for collaborative research and impactful outcomes. To do that, UK will continue to attract top talent and grow our sponsored research funding. We will also build processes and infrastructure to make partnering with our university as seamless as possible. Success for UK Innovation Connect will be measured by the success of our innovators in their research endeavors and by the growth and prosperity of our corporate partners. I also want to see the state of Kentucky become a destination for industry research and development. Kentucky ranks in the bottom 20th percentile in most innovation capacity categories, including industry research and development investments. However, our state scores exceptionally well in university STEM research and development investments per capita. We need to bridge that gap. The potential is there, but it will take the entire state of Kentucky’s innovation community to make that happen.
Is there anything else you want to ensure people know about UK Innovation Connect?
Although we are hyper-focused on supporting our innovators and corporate partners, executing our strategic plan and building our team, we are always looking for ways to support our innovation ecosystem and invite prospective partners to contact us.
UK Innovate at the University of Kentucky is the innovation, entrepreneurship and economic enterprise for University of Kentucky Research. Learn more at research.uky.edu/ukinnovate.
