Hosted by the Texas Innovation Center, KS WEL Institute's Female Founder Pitch Competition showcases emerging businesses and technologies that are paving the way to have a significant impact on the world. Open to all UT Austin undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, alumnae, and startup ecosystem women-founders, this startup competition aims to highlight innovation happening in the heart of Texas.

The Foundry provides access to makerspace equipment such as 3d printers, a laser cutter, mills, a VR headset, and a recording studio. The Foundry is designed to train and service entry-level makers. Students can join the Canvas course to learn more about how to get certified on the equipment. The Foundry cannot support large events or classes as equipment is limited.

The Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute (KS WELI) supports creatives, founders, leaders, and allies by redefining leadership and entrepreneurship. KS WELI equips and empowers students of all backgrounds through engaging programming and events, spotlighting women-led businesses through the FoundHER Program, and sponsoring interdisciplinary courses within the McCombs Entrepreneurship Minor. Since its founding, KS WELI has become a force on UT’s campus to grow and support the number of women-owned and women-led businesses.

Texas Momentum is a student organization on a mission to create a vibrant entrepreneurship community for students. We run a semester-long startup accelerator that connects student-founders with product managers, software engineers, and designers to build, launch, and scale their venture. Membership in Momentum is open to all majors.

The Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) program offers $50,000 grants for Faculty and Grad Student/Postdoc researchers to reduce the time and risk associated with translating technologies from lab to market, quickly assessing the market potential of inventions developed from fundamental discoveries in science and engineering. Teams work directly with leadership from the Southwest I-Corps Node (SWICORPS) at UT Austin to gain eligibility and prepare for the NSF grant program through regional activities.

The Office of Industry Engagement (OIE) negotiates all contracts related to private industry research funding. OIE endeavors to streamline negotiations to better accommodate industry financial cycles and assist UT faculty in their collaborative efforts with industry partners. OIE focuses on flexible engagements and expedited contractual negotiations, through collaboration with internal and external stakeholders and with support from the Office of Technology Commercialization.

The Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) is the only organization on campus authorized to manage university-owned IP (trademarks excepted). The OTC works with researchers to define the technology, assess its development stage, strategize potentially valuable patent claims, and as necessary, file patents to protect the IP in advance of publication. The OTC also supports technologies that are not patentable, such as software and copyrighted works that may be commercialized via license.

Texas Biodesign is inspired by Stanford Biodesign’s process of front-end innovation development, in which interdisciplinary teams of researchers, engineers, business participants, and clinicians work to understand how to use needs-driven innovation to solve medical and business problems. Texas Biodesign is a collaboration between UT’s Texas Innovation Center and Texas Venture Labs, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, and NASA.

The Texas Global Health Security Innovation Consortium (TEXGHS) connects academic, public- and private-sector partners to support companies working towards pandemic preparedness and response in Texas. TEXGHS is developing a health security innovation ecosystem that supports innovators and innovations fighting COVID-19 and future pandemics. UT Austin entrepreneurs should contact TEXGHS when they are seeking to commercialize infectious disease-related innovations at any stage of development.

Texas Health Catalyst supports the translation of promising ideas and discoveries into solutions that improve health outcomes and lower health care costs. The program provides support through timely and customized guidance on the research and development pathway from industry and clinical experts (Phase 1 awards), as well as seed funding for awardees (Phase 2 awards of $5K-$50K per project).