Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/688926
24 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2016 SPONSORED REPORT UConn Expanding Innovation Partnerships I n today's high-pressure business climate, more and more companies are finding that securing the right partnerships is the key to innovation and continued success. The University of Connecticut, one of the nation's leading public research universities, is expanding its public- private research collaborations with the launch of a $100 million Innovation Partnership Building on the University's main campus in Storrs, CT. The 115,000-square-foot Innovation Partnership Building or IPB is bringing world-class academic researchers, business entrepreneurs, and private industry scientists together to develop innovative technologies in flexible electronics, materials science, additive manufacturing, cybersecurity, energy, and other fields. The IPB will house one of the most advanced microscopy centers in the country as part of a partnership with the FEI Co., a worldwide scientific instrument maker. It also will provide industries and corporations access to more than $40 million in high-end research equipment. The building is expected to open in 2017 and will serve as the anchor for a future 300- acre UConn Technology Park. "UConn has a proud history of supporting the state's economy through ground- breaking research, academic excel- lence, and strong industry-university partnerships," says UConn Pro- vost Mun Choi. "This Innovation Partnership Build- ing provides the intellectual and physical assets to support the development of ground- breaking new technologies that will define our future." Some of Connecticut's — and the world's — leading corporations and industries have already committed to utilizing space in the IPB, including the United Technologies Corp, General Electric, Comcast, Pratt & Whitney, Eversource, and Fraunhofer Inc. Collaborations between UConn, the state of Connecticut, and The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine (JAX), are also starting to bear fruit. Barely two years after the facility opened, there are already 19 faculty at The Jackson Lab facility in Farmington, CT and the majority of them are collaborating with UConn physicians and researchers. UConn and JAX also recently launched a $7.7 million joint Single Cell Genomics Center — the first of its kind — which allows researchers UConn Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Anson Ma works on the creation of a prototype 3-D artificial kidney with one of his students. (Al Ferreira for UConn) The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, CT. (Janine Gelineau/ UConn Health)