Director Mark S. Long Founded 1990 | Website sidmartinbio.org Parent institution University of Florida | |
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Established 1990 - Facility opened Fall 1995 Budget $600,000 per year (2014) Location Alachua, Florida, United States Headquarters Alachua, Florida, United States | ||
The University of Florida's Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator is located in Alachua, Florida, in Progress Park. The program's mission is to foster the growth of bioscience startup companies that have some relationship to the University. The Incubator works with companies in all product areas relating to the life sciences, biomedical research, medicine, and chemical sciences.
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As of 2014, the facility had an annual budget of $600,000, of which ⅓ came from the University of Florida and the balance from fees paid by resident companies.
History
The Sid Martin Biotechnology Development Institute (SMBI) was officially founded on July 2, 1990 by the Florida Legislature. It was named after Sid Martin, a member of the Florida House of Representatives, in recognition of his commitment to the state of Florida and the University of Florida. In 1994, the Trustees at the University of Florida authorized 6 acres (24,000 m2) to build the Sid Martin Biotech Incubator.
The Incubator is 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) and was built with a combination of funding from the University of Florida, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Florida Legislature. The facility was created, engineered, equipped, and opened in 1995 as one of the first bio-business incubators in the United States. Approximate cost at that time was $11.5 million. The facility is located just outside Gainesville, Florida in the Progress Corporate Park. Much of this research park was a product of the vision of former University of Florida President, Robert Q. Marston.
Graduate companies
Over 50 biotechnology startups have graduated from SMBI and become self-sufficient companies or were acquired. Among them are:
Governance
In 2004, the facility's Director was reported to be David L. Day. By 2014, this role had been conferred upon Patti Breedlove.
Breedlove had previously been reported to be the Incubator's Manager (2007), and later its Associate Director (2011). She retired at the end of 2015, and Mark Long became director in 2016.
Resident companies
Sid Martin Biotech supports a wide range of bioscience companies including clean tech, diagnostic, therapeutic, drug delivery, genomic, bio-medical device, agbio, biofuels, and others. The Incubator can host up to fourteen resident companies at the facility. As of 2016, Sid Martin Biotech companies have attracted more than $1.53 billion in equity investment, contracts, grants, and M&A activity.
EigenChem
EigenChem Technologies is resident in the Incubator but is also a participant in another incubator, ChemCeption, located in the West Virginia Regional Technology Park. EigenChem became involved in ChemCeption as a way to commercialize their emerging technology. As of 2014, the company's president was Alexander Oliferenko. Eigenchem spun out another company, AlphaChem Technologies, in 2016 (AlphaChem is now a resident company of Sid Martin).
International recognition
In 2007, the National Business Incubator Association(NBIA) recognized Sid Martin Biotech with a second place ranking in the Technology category of its annual Incubator of the Year award program. In 2013, the University Business Incubators group (UBI Global) ranked Sid Martin Biotech as "World's Best University Biotech Incubator" among 150 contenders across 22 countries. The same year, 2013, Sid Martin Biotech won the NBIA's "Incubator of the Year" award.