Research Innovation Accelerator

Established in July 2019 our goal is to launch life sciences discoveries at Purdue towards commercialization. To this end, we are organizing the university’s technical, intellectual and other resources for early commercialization efforts. Our focus is on discoveries still housed in academia as well as with fragile early-stage startup companies – so that these entities can more rapidly and effectively obtain their proof-of-concept data or build their prototype to attract external funding and move to the next stage.

BARDA, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was established to aid in securing our nation from chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, as well as from pandemic influenza (PI) and emerging infectious diseases (EID). In Sep 2019, Purdue joined the 13-member BARDA DRIVe Accelerator network. This network consists of organizations that assist in identifying and supporting the development and commercialization of technologies that will aid in fulfilling this mission.

Learn about DRIVe and the current program areas here, check out the latest EZ-BAA (Mar 4, 2021) to read about the specifics of what DRIVe is currently funding and looking for in proposals, or contact us at Purdue for more information.

May 2021 – DRIVe is sponsoring regional contests through its accelerator network to help bring better face masks to market in order to better combat COVID-19 and future pandemics. These will feed into a nation competition. In the Midwest, the accelerator network is represented by Purdue University, the University of Missouri Midwest BioAccelerator and University Enterprise Laboratories / Gener8tor.


Entries are now closed but register to view the Midwest event live on Wed, May 19!
https://live.remo.co/e/barda-midwest-regional-mask-chal/register