CoMotion Partners

Amazon Catalyst is an award program that helps UW students, staff, and faculty launch their big ideas with social impact. It’s open to all current students, faculty, and staff at the Seattle, Bothell, and Tacoma campuses. Previous rounds of Catalyst have accepted ideas on any topic, but this round of Catalyst focuses on the specific themes of urban transportation and computational social science.

Offered through a collaboration between Amazon and UW CoMotion, Amazon Catalyst awards up to $10,000. Winners join a community of innovators—Amazon Catalyst Fellows—who share a passion for building solutions to real-world problems.

The application is straightforward and simple – just 20 questions. Got a big idea that could change the world? Got a small idea that could have a huge impact? Apply for an Amazon Catalyst award.

In the fall of 2018, BECU, Washington’s largest community credit union, partnered with CoMotion, the University of Washington’s collaborative innovation hub, to create a fintech hub in the Seattle region, which included the launch of the BECU FinTech Incubator at CoMotion Labs. Fintech startups, Noonum and Warren, were the first two members. Shortly after, Attunely and Fincluziv joined as they were the first two winners of the Fintech Incubator Competition. The collaboration combines BECU’s expertise in broad-based financial services, data analysis, and customer experiences with CoMotion’s strengths in incubation, partnership, innovation, company formation, and technology commercialization. Read more about the partnership here.

The University of Washington and Challenge Seattle — a private sector initiative of 17 of the Seattle region’s CEOs to address issues that will determine the region’s future — are committed to advancing our region’s economy and our quality of life by helping to build the transportation system of the future.

Advancing our region’s goal to be a global leader in building a smart city transportation system, the University of Washington and Challenge Seattle have partnered to create a new Mobility Innovation Center.

This multi-disciplinary Center will bring together the region’s leading expertise from the business, government, and academic sectors to use technology and innovation to find transportation solutions.

The Arthur W. Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship through the Foster School of Business partners with CoMotion in many ways. CoMotion supported startups are encouraged to participate in their competitions which include the Dempsey Startup Competition, the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge (EIC), and the Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge (HIC). Other collaborative efforts include programs such as I-Corps, and there are numerous startup resources, entrepreneurship events and career support such as the UW Startup Job Fair.

Founded by the University of Washington, Tsinghua University, and Microsoft, The Global Innovation Exchange (GIX) is a global collaboration between leading academic and cross-sector partners.  It is a new model of experiential education and practice to develop leaders in innovation. Starting with our project and team-based graduate degree programs, GIX will grow to include a broad array of innovation experiences for students, executives, and working professionals.

IP Group was set up with a mission to evolve great ideas into world-changing businesses; to bridge the gap between cutting edge scientific innovation and commercialization; giving some of the best technological inventions the tools to succeed.

Beginning in 2000, the Group pioneered the concept of the long-term exclusive partnership model with UK universities, founding an industry that helps create, build and support outstanding intellectual property-based companies on the journey to commercialization.

Since 2013, we have customized this approach for the North American market and in 2017, the Group announced it was expanding into Australasia.

The Population Health Initiative and CoMotion jointly fund, at $25,000 each, a winning project from the applicants of the CoMotion Innovation Gap Fund and that supports the vision of both units. The applicants for this funding go through CoMotion’s Innovation Gap Fund process, and funding decisions are jointly made by the Population Health Initiative and CoMotion. This funding track began in May 2018 and is offered each spring. The first two recipients include last year’s NatureCollections, led by Katie Davis, with support from mentor Patrick Gray and Innovation Manager Laura Dorsey, and this year’s “Non-invasive ultrasonic clearing of implanted catheters” leb by UW assistant professor of Neurological Surgery, Jason Hauptman and UW professor of Neurological Surgery and UW Bothell professor of Engineering and Mathematics, Pierre Mourad.

The University of Washington Undergraduate Research Program partners with CoMotion to offer opportunities to undergrad students such as the CoMotion Mary Gates Innovation Scholar program. This program provides opportunities for a select number of students to gain full-time experience learning about the innovation process by spending the summer as an intern with faculty-led initiatives to transfer university research to real-world impact. Learn more about how to apply and past recipients.

Washington Research Foundation and WRF Capital support groundbreaking technology in the life sciences, physical sciences and information sciences. By advancing brilliant research and early-stage companies, we help to grow Washington’s technology economy.