With its initial headquarters located in the ground level of Tulane’s new Thirteen15 residential development amidst a budding “Innovation District,” the institute is strategically situated to become a magnet for researchers and innovators not only from the university and the city but throughout the Gulf South. Its ultimate focus is to create a self-sustaining ecosystem that transforms talented minds into successful entrepreneurs. In doing so, it will help the city build a more diversified economy that includes technology, inventions and manufacturing alongside its shipping, tourism and hospitality elements. The institute will occupy leased space at the renewed Charity Hospital once its redevelopment is complete.
The institute will give Tulane an accelerator similar to those in place at peer institutions in the Association of American Universities (AAU). The Priddy Innovation Lab also will ensure that faculty and students across the university can more readily commercialize and monetize their ideas by providing crucial funding to nurture their startups until they are far enough along to generate revenue — thus avoiding the so-called “valley of death” that stymies countless new ventures. It will then create a pipeline of jobs for the approximately one-third of Tulane students who want to stay in the area after graduating but don’t because more lucrative opportunities lie elsewhere.
Plans are shaping up for an advisory council formed by Tulane alumni, parents and friends around the world who are passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship. This group will bring ideas, mentorship, financial support and hard-earned lessons-learned to students, faculty and community members. A mentoring and consulting network is also being formed, whereby alumni, parents and friends of Tulane can volunteer their time and expertise to engage with the entrepreneurs utilizing the Innovation Institute.
In addition to collaborating with the university’s schools and college, the institute’s partners inside Tulane will include the Taylor Center, the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the Scot Ackerman MakerSpace, the Office of Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property (which organizes the annual Tulane Novel Tech Challenge), and the Tulane National Primate Research Center.
Outside organizations also will be involved, from local entities such as The Idea Village (which produces the yearly New Orleans Entrepreneur Week) and the New Orleans BioInnovation Center to economic development groups around the state.
“Given Tulane’s world-class reputation across multiple disciplines, the foundation for this project’s success is already well-established.”
– David Mussafer
