Texas Venture Labs works campus-wide across disciplines to transform graduate students into entrepreneurs and business leaders, take their innovations to market, and accelerate startups in our ecosystem. We do this through our Practicum course and Fellows program that provide experiential learning for grad students, our Investment Competition, and our Accelerator. Let us help you build your skills while launching your dreams.

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.

This course explores how to solve medical device design problems using systematic design thinking and practices. Students will interpret clinical needs and define an open engineering medical device design problem, including formulating engineering requirements/specifications to address a marketable need and generate concepts in a way that promotes both creativity and usefulness.

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 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 President’s Award empowers students and faculty to examine real-world interdisciplinary topics while incorporating in-country learning into the classroom experience. Faculty work closely with other UT faculty, student teams, and international partners, utilizing funding and administrative support provided by the award to implement international projects. Students earn 4 credit hours during the one-year program. Projects incorporating entrepreneurship and innovation are invited to apply.

UT Austin's Simulation and Game Applications (SAGA) Lab develops software for funded projects and assists in preparing grant proposals. We create games, interactive/immersive environments, mobile apps, web dashboards, game-simulations, and VR/AR software solutions. The SAGA Lab and partnering UT faculty co-design the software solution, which is developed by paid student-interns. We have a long track record of creating software solutions for research and education spanning nearly 10 years.

The Social Entrepreneurship & Non-profits Certificate brings together students who are interested in pursuing a career in the public service sector and expanding their involvement in the community. Students have the opportunity to take coursework from a variety of disciplines that provide skills and knowledge in non-profit management, community engagement, and development. Students also gain hands-on experience through internships and research.