The KS WEL Institute empowers and spotlights female-owned startups monthly through their application-based Featured Female Founders program. The Featured Female Founders program provides resources and exposure to the Austin startup community for these founders. Come stop by the KS WEL Institute or apply online if you're interested in becoming a Featured Female Founder!

Genesis is a student-alumni partnership with over $1.8 million to distribute to student-founded companies through non-dilutive grants, along with the time and talent of our diverse and entrepreneurial leadership team. Genesis has helped founders develop their businesses, build their products, generate their first revenue, recruit cofounders and early employees, brainstorm ideas, and raise future funding from top investors. All students can apply for funding and mentorship.

The George Kozmetsky Memorial Student Challenge is an interdisciplinary program that links students from any major/or year in teams to address relevant community problems. The program begins each Fall and generally engages 150 students across the campus. Teams are given problems, research possible solutions, and submit presentations. Top 10 presentations pitch to judges and $15K in prize monies are presented to top solutions. Solutions are shared with communities.

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.

The LaunchPad at UT Austin is a resource hub that helps all undergraduate and graduate students explore entrepreneurship at UT. We help students identify where they are in their entrepreneurial journey – Explore, Ideate, Create, or Scale – then educate and connect them to resources across campus and in Austin. LaunchPad resources include events, coworking space, funding, bootcamps, accelerators, and other programs. We are a proud member of the global Blackstone LaunchPad Network of 46+ campuses.

The Corporate Relations team is uniquely suited to help connect UT's research and innovation with relevant and interested company partners. We seek to solicit and raise funding from companies to advance student programming, research and discovery. If UT students or faculty would like to explore developing/deepening ties with industry, we suggest that we first have an internal discussion to assess the opportunity so that we can make appropriate connections.

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 Sponsored Projects (OSP) provides support for all externally sponsored projects, excluding those sponsored by industry. Services include review/submission of proposals, negotiation/acceptance of awards, and setup of financial accounts. OSP also manages budget changes, financial reporting, invoicing, subrecipient monitoring, award extensions and audits. OSP has training available for managing awards as well as compliance with university and sponsor policies/regulations.

The Product Prodigy Institute at UT Austin is an innovative hub for engaging students that identify as first generation or low-income in startup methodologies and product management with a focus on social and environmental impact. The 2 year program equips students with cutting-edge skills in design, technology, and entrepreneurship, creating pathways to high demand careers and wealth creation. 

Get help preparing your SBIR/STTR proposals. For UT Austin-affiliated startups preparing SBIR/STTR Phase I or Phase II proposals. Work with expert proposal preparers and ask questions specific to your proposal. Learn the details of agency-specific proposal preparation including electronic submission and commercialization plans. Agency-specific workshops for the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Defense (DOD), and National Institutes of Health (NIH) are offered periodically.