Why UVA Innovates
The pieces were already here. What was missing was the connection.
UVA already has the pieces of America’s leading founder university: twelve schools, four translation engines, a $400M biotechnology institute, a regional cluster, and a Commonwealth asking UVA to lead.
Our mission: Empowering founders to create what the world needs now.
In 2024, the Batten Institute, the Galant Center, the Coulter Center, UVA LVG and the BioHub were each excellent — and each a separate door. A founder had to already know the map to use the map.
UVA Innovates was established that year as a University-wide platform, not another program. It gives each constituency one door — the Foundry for students, Enterprise Studio for faculty, the BioAccelerator for companies — convenes more than a dozen partner organizations that already existed, and owns the number nobody owned: ventures formed.
Three principles
Coordinate, don’t consolidate
Schools keep their programs, their budgets and their credit. UVA Innovates connects them; it does not absorb them.
One door per constituency
A student, a faculty member and a company each have exactly one place to start — and everything behind it is shared.
Measure the system, not the parts
Every unit could hit its own targets while the University still formed six companies a year. The whole number is the test.
By the numbers
What the whole system produces in a year — FY 2026, all engines combined.
Unique students reached through advising, events and programs.
Every UVA school engaged with Foundry programming.
Faculty and research-graduate ventures tracked by Enterprise Studio.
Companies nationwide advancing UVA discoveries under license.
Raised by C’Ville BioHub ecosystem companies, 2015–2025.
Graduate entrepreneurship, Princeton Review 2026. #1 in the South.
Seed and early-stage capital into UVA ventures since 2012.
Ecosystem support organizations cataloged to route founders.
Where we stand
Where UVA leads
- #7 in the nation for graduate entrepreneurship — Princeton Review, 2026
- #1 in the South; #5 among public universities
- Darden ranked #9 globally for entrepreneurship; #3 among U.S. public business schools
- School of Medicine at #36 nationally for NIH funding, up seven places in five years
- $37M+ deployed into UVA ventures through the Galant Challenge since 2012
The opportunity ahead
- UVA forms roughly 4–6 new companies a year from its research base; the top startup-forming universities form 20–30 or more
- American universities produced 941 startups in FY2024 — UVA’s share is well under its share of research dollars
- Virginia’s own Lab-to-Launch goal is to double university startup formation
The education is nationally ranked. The throughput is not yet. That gap is the whole opportunity in front of us.
The four engines
9 Elliewood Ave · since 2024
722 Preston Ave · since 2025
North Fork · since 2025
In development
Leadership: One seat that can convene the whole University.
Paul Cherukuri, Ph.D.Chief Innovation Officer · cherukuri@virginia.eduThrough a generous gift from Donna and Richard Tadler, UVA established the Tadler University Professorship of Entrepreneurship in December 2021 around a powerful idea: entrepreneurship belongs to the entire University. Designed to transcend the boundaries of any single school, with faculty appointments in both McIntire and Engineering, the professorship creates the academic reach to connect disciplines, schools and communities across UVA around the work of founders.
UVA’s first Chief Innovation Officer, announced in August 2025, builds upon that vision with a University-wide mandate for action — connecting schools and disciplines, translating faculty and student ideas into impact, and expanding partnerships with industry, government, alumni and the broader innovation ecosystem.
Together, the Tadler University Professorship and the Chief Innovation Officer role create a distinctive model for University-wide leadership in entrepreneurship and innovation — with the academic standing to work across schools, the institutional mandate to convene them, and the mission to empower founders across UVA.