You probably know already that Berkeley is a world leader in entrepreneurship. The following are some of the extraordinary life sciences entrepreneurship resources that are available to you. (For resources that are not specific to life sciences, see begin.berkeley.edu.)
Open to UC Berkeley students, postdocs, and faculty
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Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center (LSEC): the first stop for anyone interested in creating or working with startups in bio-related fields (lsec.berkeley.edu)
- LSEC Venture Grant Program: $100k grant plus up to $200k SkyDeck Fund investment for translational research, and cross-campus support for the first steps toward commercialization (lsec.berkeley.edu/venture-grant)
- Bakar Innovation Fellows Program: fellowship support for graduate students and postdocs interested in translating research to commercialization (bakarfellows.berkeley.edu)
- Berkeley LSEC - Nucleate Venture Fellowship: experiential program for PhD students and postdocs interested in venture capital and entrepreneurship (lsec.berkeley.edu/fellows)
- Bio Startup Speed Teaming: meet your match with a fun online speed-teaming event (lsec.berkeley.edu/speed-teaming)
- Robinson Life Science, Business, and Entrepreneurship Program: partnership between the Haas School of Business and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, where students earn two bachelor’s degrees and take rigorous courses designed to help bridge scientific inquiry and research with entrepreneurship and commercial application (lsbe.berkeley.edu)
- Biotech @ Berkeley: graduate student club promoting career exploration, networking, and other opportunities to become familiar with biotech-related industry, the public sector/government, and entrepreneurship (callink.berkeley.edu/organization/biotech)
- Health Tech CoLab: increasing access to healthcare by accelerating the development of medical devices, diagnostic tools, and digital health tools in a shared co-working space. (healthtech.berkeley.edu)
- Berkeley Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Program: fosters entrepreneurship among postdocs and graduate students, through education, awareness, and hands-on opportunities (bpep.berkeley.edu)
- Biotechnology Entrepreneurship: course covering impact, history, therapeutics R&D, entrepreneurship & careers (BIOENG 153/253)
- Haas Healthcare Association: Berkeley Haas student-run association for business students interested in the healthcare industry (www.healthcareathaas.com)
Open to students, faculty and startups where UC Berkeley affiliation is not required
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Bakar BioEnginuity Hub and Bakar Labs: facility that supports life science and deep tech entrepreneurship with lectures, programming, makerspace, advisor resources, and a world-class wetlab to grow your company (bbh.berkeley.edu)
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I-Corps @ LSEC: industry-standard program to test your idea for market viability (bayicorps.com)
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QB3: startup-supporting labspace and graduate career resources, including a Grantwriting Worshop and Early-Stage Support programs (qb3.berkeley.edu)
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Bio Track @ Berkeley SkyDeck: top startup accelerator investing $200k per company, and providing extensive programming and hundreds of expert advisors (skydeck.berkeley.edu/bio-track)
- Energy & Biosciences Institute Entrepreneurial Business Incubator: EBI2 offers dedicated research space for concept advancement where startups gain access to the UCB research infrastructure and startup network
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Research Infrastructure Commons: first-of-its-kind program allowing startups to use idle research tools on campus and own the IP (ric.berkeley.edu)
- HS Chau Women in Enterprising Science Program: opportunity for researchers who are committed to addressing gender inequity in biotechnology and are driven to commercially develop solutions for some of the world’s greatest problems
- Nucleate Bio Bay Area: graduate student-run life science-focused startup accelerator, offering education, mentorship and a pitch showcase (nucleate.xyz)
General Resources
- Intellectual Property & Industry Research Alliances: IP and startup support
- Berkeley BEGIN: comprehensive list of UC Berkeley entrepreneurship resources
- Guidance on SBIR and STTR Grants for UC Berkeley Researchers
- How to spin your scientific research out of a university and into a startup: good advice from Y Combinator
- Spinout Playbook: more good advice for academic founders from a top VC firm
- Lab to Startup Podcast: great stories from academic startup founders, hosted by the leader of Berkeley's Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Program.
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Berkeley Life Sciences Startup Checklist
If you are interested in learning more about the opportunities available to build an even more entrepreneurial, scholarly or applied career at Berkeley, please schedule a time to chat here
