For over 150 years, the University of Washington (UW) has nurtured scholarly endeavors that have yielded discoveries and inventions with profound effects on people’s lives. From medical devices and vaccines to deep-sea mapping and natural language processing, our researchers have uncovered bold new insights that have pushed the boundaries of knowledge—and garnered UW recognition by Reuters as the #1 most innovative public university in the world.
Some of these insights were the result of one person’s creative spark or inventive mind. Many were the product of interdisciplinary collaborations reaching far and wide across the planet. None of this happens without the rich and dynamic environment of the UW, a community that values collaboration and diversity of thought, a place where it is possible to experiment, fail, and try again. For the greater good.
UW CoMotion works with researchers and entrepreneurs to foster that collaboration and move discoveries from lab to market. We offer the services most often cited as critical by successful startups to grow fledgling companies into sustainable enterprises with societal and economic impact: innovation training, intellectual property advising and protection, mentorship, networking, funding, copyright and licensing support, incubation space, and more.
In a time of disruption and change, we at CoMotion have the opportunity and responsibility to reimagine our role and more skillfully deploy our tools, resources, and people to address humanity’s most pressing challenges—issues like economic inequity, food and energy security, emerging infectious diseases, and the climate crisis. There is no better time than now to build on UW’s foundation of successful innovation and accelerate our work.
We can’t do it alone. We can and must build partnerships—among private, public, and nonprofit players—as innovative as our ideas and act boldly to write the next chapter of history. Together.
