Welcome to the Innovation and New Ventures Office

Northwestern's vibrant interplay between teaching and collaborative research has created an intellectually rich, highly productive, and entrepreneurial community. Northwestern's innovations arise from multiple disciplines ranging from communication and arts to social sciences, engineering and medicine. Ideas emerge from students, faculty and staff members and have resulted in products, services and other approaches that can change the world. The Innovation and New Ventures Office (INVO) strives to find the most efficient ways to take Northwestern's ingenuity into products useful to the public.

INVO provides a base of support for Northwestern's expanding innovative culture and is the entrance point for faculty, students and the business community interested in moving Northwestern's inventions to the public domain.

INVO is organized around three efforts: Intellectual Property and Licensing, New Ventures and Innovation, and Community Outreach.

The Intellectual Property and Licensing group is responsible for evaluating new ideas, patenting selected new inventions, marketing them to potential investors and licensees, and negotiating licensee agreements.

The New Ventures group provides coaching and networking to create start-up companies (for profit or non-profit) based on University innovations that benefit the society.

And the Community Outreach group will help coordinate with those within Northwestern who practice, study, and teach innovation, entrepreneurship, and the development of commercial ventures.

We look forward to working with you.