Faculty News

The Hub is also working to build a supportive innovation ecosystem. What has become known as the Innovation Champions Network provides those on campus involved in entrepreneurship efforts with a forum for information sharing, strategic planning, and special initiatives coordination. The network includes members from several long-standing campus organizations including the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurial Development (CIED), student organizations like Student Creativity Empowerment and Entrepreneurship (SCEE), and the university’s two Institutes for Science and Innovation, QB3 and the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS).

Richard (Ed) Green, professor of biomolecular engineering, has been selected to serve as the next director of the California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at UC Santa Cruz.

QB3 is the University of California’s hub for innovation and entrepreneurship in life science, working with UC researchers and other scientists to launch startup companies and partner with industry. QB3 has centers at UC Santa Cruz, Berkeley, and San Francisco and operates in collaboration with private industry and venture capital.

“The opportunities in biotechnology are enormous,” Green said. “QB3 has been at the forefront, fostering the connections that aim UCSC technology at important problems. I’m looking forward to expanding the impact of QB3 in Santa Cruz and beyond.”

The Innovation & Business Engagement Hub, in collaboration with the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at UCSC, launched a new fellowship program in 2022 organized through Nucleate, a free and collaborative student-run organization founded at Harvard University with a focus on identifying future “bioentrepreneurs.”