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PitchBook—Suspension of federal funding to universities and to the agencies that sustain their research risks cutting off a significant source of startup formation. “Most universities do not have the resources—by far—to weather the storm,” said Bryn Rees, associate vice-chancellor of innovation and partnerships at С���� Boulder.

Silicon Flatirons Center—Rees has played a pivotal role in launching impactful startups from С���� Boulder. After nearly a decade of leadership, Rees has helped build multiple programs to support innovations at С���� Boulder, including the Lab Venture Challenge (LVC), NSF’s I-Corps and the Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator.

To introduce the SBIR/STTR programs and highlight funding uses, Venture Partners at ���� Boulder is hosting a session to help researchers understand how to find funding and prepare their companies for an SBIR/STTR proposal.

The Ascent Deep Tech Investor Showcase brings together researchers, investors and community supporters to highlight innovative deep tech startups spinning out of the University of Colorado. Attendees will have a chance to see pitches from each of the Ascent 2025 cohort startups, followed by a networking happy hour to learn more.

Venture Partners at ���� Boulder and its partners across the Intermountain West once again demonstrated the power of university innovations with back-to-back startup showcases for the Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator and Destination Startup. Both provided a platform for cutting-edge startups, breakthrough research and high-growth potential ventures to connect with industry leaders and investors.

Mesa Quantum, a С���� Boulder spinout and leader in quantum sensing, recently announced $3.7 million in seed funding and a $1.9 million grant from SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Space Force. Both investments are fueling the company’s drive toward commercializing chip-scale quantum sensors for multiple applications including next-generation position, navigation and timing solutions.

Daily Camera—С���� Boulder’s commercialization, including startup companies, had an economic impact of $8 billion nationally and $5.2 billion in Colorado from 2018-2022, according to a 2022 report from С���� Boulder’s Leeds School of Business. Ball Aerospace was one of the first startup companies out of С���� Boulder. Another is Solid Power, which creates electric vehicle batteries and other components and has partnered with Ford and BMW.

Destination Startup brings groundbreaking startups built on novel discoveries from top national labs and universities together with investors from throughout North America to catalyze real-world impact. This showcase demonstrates a powerful way to invest in and get funding for innovative research and translate it into impactful business ventures.

These use-inspired and translation grant opportunities are available to qualifying startups and universities to accelerate the research, development and commercialization of innovations in advanced sensing and computation that lead to tangible products, services, or solutions. Support ranges from $250,000 to $750,000 for the Translation Grant Program and up to $500,000 for the Use-Inspired R&D Grant Program.

The С���� Boulder Research & Innovation Office (RIO) announced a targeted realignment in November to enhance strategic integration across key areas and best position RIO to serve the university's growing research and innovation needs. The shift focused on RIO’s internal organization and operations and was designed to support long-term growth, collaboration and impact.