Temple’s new hub will help researchers commercialize their innovations

Temple University is the latest higher-ed in Philadelphia to create an innovation center. Innovation Nest, launched in March, aims to support research-based initiatives at the university and help commercialize them.

“One of the really important goals of any research university is to create solutions that help society solve problems,” said Josh Gladden, Temple’s vice president for research. “There’s a lot of ways we do that, but an important part is … taking technologies and advancing them out into the private sector where they can get developed into solutions.”

The center, dubbed “INest,” is located on the fourth floor at 3223 N. Broad St. and cost just over $5 million to build — over half of which was funded through grants. The over 8,000-square-foot space was formerly an old laboratory and now includes wet labs, a facility for gene sequencing, meeting rooms, and an event space.

The center is open to the distinct industries and formats that research innovation might take, says Stephen Nappi, Temple’s associate vice president for technology commercialization and business development. That could include, for example, the development of software, health care, or robotic technologies.

“It doesn’t matter to us,” Nappi said. “What we’re designed for is to handle any type of innovation.”

The hub will support innovators by connecting them to resources that can help advance an innovation through to commercialization. A team will help researchers identify areas of commercial interest and then can help protect those innovations by guiding them through the patent process, for example. The space is intended to bring together distinct partners through community engagement, training, and other events.

INest has nine staff members and can accommodate up to 12 companies headquartered there. To date, one company is working out of a dedicated “incubation” space there: Muse Engine, which is focused on injection molding. There is also interest from six other companies, some of which have made reservations for space, said Nappi. The hope is that in the next two months, seven of the 12 dedicated spaces that can be headquartered by companies are filled.

“It’s complex. It is. There are lots of resources that are around [the] table,” Nappi said. “The key to the Innovation Nest is it creates that single platform to really put all this under one roof.”

While the primary audience for the center is the immediate Temple research community, it is also inviting companies with ties to the school, including international businesses. Companies can be headquartered there with dedicated space, and INest also offers tiered memberships depending on the space needs of the user, ranging from $100 to $1,000 a month, according to the university’s website.

“You can register your company through the flex membership and be headquartered at the Innovation Nest, so that it’s not at your house, it’s a professional location to base your operation at a minimal cost,” said Nappi.

Other universities in Philadelphia have invested in supporting and attracting businesses to the area: Pennovation Works from the University of Pennsylvania, transformed the former DuPont Co.’s Marshall Labs site into a building for entrepreneurs. Schuylkill Yards is being developed as the result of a collaboration between Drexel University and developer Brandywine Realty Trust with space for businesses. When the development was announced in 2016, university president John Fry noted that part of the aim was to attract innovative start-ups, technology businesses, and biomedical laboratories to the area.

“Research universities play a key role in economic development in their local and their regional environment,” Gladden said. “Penn and Drexel have done a great job in West Philly and built up some exciting spaces and innovative communities. We see a lot of opportunities in the North Philly region for exactly that kind of development.”

The center could attract new companies to North Philadelphia and help spark a “tech corridor,” said Nappi.

“The vision is — I think this is highly attainable very quickly — is that we will quickly outgrow the space and we will be in the market for [a] similar type of space, but larger to accommodate more spin outs, more companies, more partnerships,” said Gladden.