Become a partner
CoMotion partners with university departments, companies, nonprofits, investment groups and individuals who support our mission of guiding UW innovations from idea to impact. Contact us to learn how to become a UW CoMotion partner.
“I have enjoyed working with the CoMotion team. Their high level of responsiveness and preparation have enabled IP Group Inc. to complete deals quickly and efficiently.”
- John Fijol, Director, Systems Technologies, IP Group
Current partners
BECU
In the fall of 2018, BECU, Washington’s largest community credit union, partnered with CoMotion, to create a fintech hub in the Seattle region, which included the launch of the BECU FinTech Incubator at CoMotion Labs. The collaboration combines BECU’s expertise in financial services, data analysis, and customer experiences with CoMotion’s strengths in incubation, partnership, innovation, company formation, and technology commercialization.
Challenge Seattle
The University of Washington and Challenge Seattle — a private sector initiative of 17 of the Seattle region’s CEOs — are committed to advancing our region’s economy and our quality of life by helping to build the transportation system of the future. They have partnered to create the Mobility Innovation Center, a multi-disciplinary Center that will bring together the region’s leading expertise from the business, government, and academic sectors to use technology and innovation to find transportation solutions.
Washington Research Foundation
Washington Research Foundation supports innovation at any stage, operating at the intersection of academic research, technology development, public and private investment, philanthropy and industry. They are a major contributor to UW’s CoMotion Innovation Gap Fund program that targets research and technologies with strong commercial potential and have contributed more than 500 individual grants to the University of Washington.
Key UW programmatic partners
CoMotion also works with a number of University of Washington partners across campus including the Arthur W. Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, Population Health and the Undergraduate Research Program. Learn more about these partnerships below, and please contact us to learn how you can partner with CoMotion.
Arthur W. Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship
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 event,s and career support such as the UW Startup Job Fair.
Population Health Initiative
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” ledby UW assistant professor of Neurological Surgery, Jason Hauptman and UW professor of Neurological Surgery and UW Bothell professor of Engineering and Mathematics, Pierre Mourad.
WE-REACH
The Washington Entrepreneurial Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (WE-REACH) is a public/private partnership designed to facilitate and accelerate the transformation of regional health research innovations into market-ready products and services that impact health outcomes. WE-REACH is funded by the NIH with cash-matching UW institutional commitments and key organizational partnerships including CoMotion as well as the Institute for Protein Design, UW School of Pharmacy, and the Institute of Translational Health Sciences. The WE-REACH team, led by Dr. Rodney JY Ho, looks forward to working with our stakeholders, mentors, and supporters to foster a growing community of biomedical innovators.
Undergraduate Research Program
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.
School of Law
The University of Washington School of Law partners with CoMotion through the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic (ELC), with whom we have compiled a list of resources that help UW researchers comply with all the legal obligations of creating a startup. These include federal resources and information on planning, launching, managing, and growing your small business; information about forming and licensing your business; as well as advice, workshops and free resources for entrepreneurs.