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Johns Hopkins University's Rockville campus is launching a technology commercialization and entrepreneurship program based on a similar initiative at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, that officials said has led to the creation of more than 25 companies since its inception in 2005.

The program — called Innovate! — will take 15 business executives and 15 post-doctoral entrepreneurs through the process of evaluating a technology product's commercial potential and starting a business around that product over about a year's time. The products will be from the National Institutes of Health, Hopkins and other research institutions and federal agencies.

The program is among the follow-up projects sparked by the county's biosciences task force report, said Elaine Amir, executive director of Hopkins' Montgomery County campus. One of that report's five primary objectives was to enhance the environment for entrepreneurship and the creation of new life sciences companies, she said.

"We're getting a lot of post-docs interested in the program," Amir said. "There are not as many entrepreneurs so far. But it's helped us to see a great demand for people who want to become entrepreneurs, especially because that is a key goal of the county's biosciences task force."

The university's Carey Business School will launch the program, which is funded by a three-year National Science Foundation grant, in February. Officials want to bring the program under the business school as a regular university program and are already seeking funding beyond the three-year grant, Amir said.

The University of Maryland's Activate program has helped launch companies such as Foligo Therapeutics, a Rockville biopharmaceutical company developing products to treat ovarian cancer that was in Activate in 2005. That program was also supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, as well as from the Maryland Technology Development Corp.

The Activate program was helpful when Mona Jhaveri, founder and CEO of Foligo, went through it in 2005, she said.

"Though in certain respects, I had to seek advice from others outside the program to help me get started," Jhaveri added. "I can imagine the program is much better now."

Raising money has been very difficult over the past year, she said. "We are currently in the process of fundraising from angel investors and federal and state venture programs," Jhaveri said.

While Activate focuses on women business owners, the Hopkins program focuses on post-doctoral entrepreneurs, Amir said, as they have their doctoral degrees in science and really know their fields.

"The idea is to create products from the science," Amir said. "People will bring their own technologies. We're also looking for ones that are already patented."

Innovate! is perfect for business professionals who have thought about starting their own technology company and are looking for a supportive, structured environment to help make it happen, said Yash Gupta, dean of the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

Partners for the initiative include Rockville Economic Development, the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development and NIH.

Innovate!

Robin Ferrier, 301-315-2896,

rferrier@jhu.edu