Navigating the journey from research to real-world impact can be challenging. Luckily for Vanderbilt faculty, there's a network of Innovation Ambassadors to guide them.
Developed by the Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization, the Innovation Ambassadors program trains ambassadors-faculty volunteers from departments across campus-to be peer resources for colleagues who are exploring pathways to commercialization.
Whether an investigator is curious about patent protection, research funding opportunities or startup formation, they can turn to discipline-specific ambassadors to help them tap into the expertise available right here at Vanderbilt.
"The Innovation Ambassadors provide a readily available source of trusted, peer-to-peer advice to faculty, helping them find the optimum pathway for achieving impact from their research results," said Alan Bentley, assistant vice chancellor for technology transfer and intellectual property development. "Last year, CTTC received 231 new invention disclosures representing 521 inventors, nearly 200 of whom were first-time disclosers. The Innovation Ambassadors program aims to keep that momentum going by ensuring more faculty know where to start."
Jo Ellen Holt is director of the skills and simulation lab at the Vanderbilt School of Nursing. She is also an ambassador.
Holt's decision to join the interdisciplinary cohort-whose expertise spans engineering, medicine, science, education and nursing and is tailored to the commercialization challenges of each discipline-was motivated by her interest in transforming care delivery.
"As a nurse initially trained in chemical engineering, I understand how innovation works; I also understand how invisible nursing expertise can be in these spaces," Holt said.
"I came here to become fluent in innovation-not just for myself, but to open doors for our entire profession. Now colleagues have the tools to pursue solutions they may not have known were possible or scalable, and that promote recognizable ownership within the nursing profession."
Holt draws on her ambassador training to connect her School of Nursing colleagues with CTTC. Her efforts have yielded patent filings for groundbreaking medical devices (including an incentive spirometer adaptor for tracheostomy patients) and a partnership with the Metro Nashville Public Health Department to use new simulation techniques to train community members in emergency overdose response.
In his work as a research professor of pharmacology and chemistry at the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology, Alex Waterson regularly encounters research in its earliest stages. His vantage point positions him well, as a faculty ambassador, to offer commercialization guidance as projects take shape.
"I wind up seeing early phases of a lot of different projects, from a lot of investigators," Waterson said. "Knowing what the possible pathways to commercialization are, and what resources are out there, helps us steer that work into a potentially successful opportunity for them later on."
Waterson stressed the importance of faculty engaging often and early with the CTTC and its initiatives.
"There's really useful information and opportunities in the informational emails that CTTC sends around," Waterson said. "Some investigators may think their work is not well-suited for commercialization, but it's sometimes hard to predict what might resonate externally. So open those emails. Ask some questions. You might have something that fits."
Since its launch in 2022, Vanderbilt's Innovation Ambassadors program has been a model for peer-led initiatives at institutions including Columbia University, the University of Arizona, the University of Michigan, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Utah. Vanderbilt now leads a quarterly working group for nearly a dozen institutions that have launched or are exploring adopting the model.
Part of the program's success can be attributed to the continuous feedback loop created by its peer-to-peer framework. As ambassadors regularly report departmental needs and concerns to CTTC, process refinements can happen swiftly.
The result is a trusted, faculty-centric approach to moving discoveries beyond the lab.
About the CTTC
Vanderbilt Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization's mission is to provide professional commercialization services to the Vanderbilt community, thus optimizing the flow of innovation to the marketplace and generating revenue that supports future research activities, while having a positive impact on society. It is a conduit for the transfer of promising Vanderbilt technologies to industry; it contributes to regional economic development by licensing locally and supporting new venture creation; and it encourages greater collaboration between academia and industry.
