RISE-UP

What is RISE-UP?

Funded by the US Office of Naval Research (ONR), RISE-UP (Resilient, Innovative, Sustainable Economies via University Partnerships) is a multi-year initiative fostering collaboration between the University of Alaska, University of Hawaii, and University of Rhode Island. Despite their small population sizes and economic challenges, each state plays a crucial role in the national security and maritime economy of the U.S.

Under this initiative, the universities facilitate student exchange opportunities and establish an inter-state mentorship network. This collaborative effort aims to enrich participants’ learning and development journeys by exposing them to real-world problems in real-time, guided by mentors from diverse states, industries, and sectors.

Patents2Products

Patents2Products is a year-round fellowship program that hires student trainees, known as Innovation & Entrepreneurship (I&E) Fellows, to learn and acquire necessary skills and tools for launching a successful startup. By both developing new and utilizing existing intellectual property – to include those developed by or associated with URI – you will work to turn great ideas into successful companies.

The program is seeking highly motivated trainees with strong scientific and technical backgrounds as well as entrepreneurial aspirations. P2P aims to provide you with an opportunity to pursue translational research focused on commercialization through a learning and implementation framework that leads to tangible outcomes in product development.

Faculty Fellows

Faculty Fellows is a semester-long program strategically focused on enhancing faculty involvement in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at URI to establish an active, collaborative network of colleagues who are motivated to integrate an entrepreneurial mindset into their teaching and research.

Through an intensive bootcamp, faculty fellows will learn key techniques on how to incorporate the Lean Startup methodology into the design of their program curricula and effectively teach multidisciplinary teams on tackling real world challenges through research. With a rigorous structure of teaching, mentoring, participation in curricula design and networking, you will be positioned as a vital part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Pathways to Innovation & Entrepreneurship

PIE-D is a semester-long sprint-like design program that will teach students to work through one iteration of the design process with an entrepreneurial focus: translating needs to technical specifications, concept generation and down-selection, specification refinement, functional prototyping, testing, and redesign.

Following the Lean Launchpad methodology taught by real-world entrepreneurs, teams will focus on ideation and iteration, spanning three strategic areas: oceans, defense, and healthcare. Following the Lean Launchpad methodology taught by faculty to include real-world entrepreneurs, you will learn ideation and iteration, spanning strategic areas to include oceans, defense, and healthcare.

Ideation Studio

Ideation Studio is a year-round program that sponsors faculty and student teams to explore the pathways for taking technological innovations to market. The studio’s goal is to help URI research groups explore and navigate the establishment of company startups after spinning out from the lab.

This program will focus on accelerating the growth of start-up companies to get to the next stage(s) of their development. Possible MVPs may develop and be tested by early adopters with an established product-market fit. With support and collaboration from the URI Research Foundation, RIHub and MassChallenge, among other RI innovation ecosystem partners, faculty and students will work together to advance discoveries and ideas towards new products, services, and businesses.

Innovation Challenges

The Innovation Challenges, powered by RISE-UP allows URI students and researchers to contribute to problem-solving for real-world issues within the university environment. With great enthusiasm and support from Deans, Faculty and staff, we have complied a list of challenges for students and researchers to select from. Submissions leading in points for innovation, feasibility, creativity and impact will win cash prizes as listed below!

By aligning RISE-UP resources with local and global challenges, the program will provide hands-on experiential learning, access to seasoned mentors, and lean launchpad-based tools and curriculum. Bootcamps, seminars, and access to advanced technical resources will equip participants for success.

Technology Transfer

Technology Transfer [TT] Fellows Program is designed to train students in assisting for tech transfer. Fellows will be licensing specialist who will access the technical and market value of potential, new, and existing URI inventions and intellectual property [IP].

Fellows will receive valuable training and experience such as determining technology readiness for licensing and market value propositions for early stage inventions.