UMB and UMBC collaborate to establish UM-BILD, an NIH-funded life sciences incubator

A $4 million Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hubs (REACH) grant, managed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has officially been committed to facilitate the establishment of a new center in Baltimore.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore Life Science Discovery (UM-BILD) accelerator, located at the University of Maryland BioPark and bwtech@UMBC, is set to become one of five REACH hubs. It is part of a third cohort for the NIH program focused on translating potential scientific breakthroughs into tangible medical products and offering hubs to train the region’s biomedical workforce.

UMB has received a $4 million @NIH grant shared with @UMBC to establish the University of Maryland, Baltimore Life Science Discovery (UM-BILD) Accelerator in @umbiopark and at bwtech@UMBC. The proof-of-concept hub is 1 of only 5 such NIH hubs in the U.S. https://t.co/nEKcDmXZUm pic.twitter.com/TGgtyfYr1h

— University of Maryland, Baltimore (@UMBaltimore) November 22, 2023

The BioPark and bwtech@UMBC are constituent entities of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), respectively. The NIH funds will be jointly distributed across these institutions, with a primary focus on supporting “product validation work.” Notably, according to the NIH website, this approach has already engaged 1,900 scientists, helped establish 49 startups and led to the development of 15 technologies through previously funded REACH hubs.

Karl Steiner, UMBC’s vice president for research and creative achievement, referenced past successes when the partners previously collaborated. Last year, the two universities received NIH funding to launch the inclusivity-minded Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) initiative. This allowed the schools to hire “ten new faculty members from groups underrepresented in biomedical science with cross-campus appointments at both institutions,” he said.

“We are very excited about this next step in our long-term and close partnership with our colleagues at UMB,” Steiner said via email. “UMBC has a decades-long nationally-recognized track record of successfully launching the academic careers of underrepresented minorities.”

Globin Solutions CEO Jason Rose, who also serves as the Baltimore-based University of Maryland School of Medicine’s associate dean for innovation and physician science development, is the grant’s main investigator. He cited the prior two cohorts of hubs as a “great resource” for UM-BILD.

“One element of being in this program is that you can use them as a resource,” Rose told Technical.ly. “And we’re already meeting with groups from the other hubs in the past — both [through] the NIH and directly with them — to learn about what worked, what didn’t work, and helping to build out the structure.”

The NIH grant will be supplemented by matching funds from UM-BILD and its partners, according to Rose. The combined funds are expected to exceed $9 million over its four-year period. According to an announcement, the money will allow up to 44 students and faculty seed investments of as much as $100,000 to develop potential technologies, as well as access all of the hub’s resources.

While some of the hubs funded in 2015 and 2019 were multi-state, UM-BILD focuses on a more regional effort. Rose, who was previously involved with research-related training initiatives at the University of Pittsburgh, said that UM-BILD partners have already engaged in discussions with networks like the Kentucky Network for Innovation & Commercialization.

According to Rose, other institutional partners involved in establishing this new incubator include Morgan State University, the University of Maryland, College Park and entities such as the recently launched Blackbird Labs. He said that Blackbird CEO Matt Tremblay contributed to the project as a consultant.

Baltimore’s REACH hub initiative appears aligned with the goals outlined by the consortium steering Baltimore’s federal tech hub status. In reflection of these and the FIRST program’s goals, the NIH is currently changing to address its own potential “reputational bias” — an issue the Bethesda, Maryland-based institution has grappled with for many years, as mentioned in a press release.