Our Partnerships
Key Partners
Ecosystem Partnerships
Extreme Tech Challenge
The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) and Ignite Social Impact (Ignite) have partnered with Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC), a non-profit organization behind the world’s biggest startup competition that aims to help startups change the world for the better.
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Bethesda Green
The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) and Ignite Social Impact (Ignite) have partnered with Bethesda Green, a nonprofit that works to address environmental challenges locally by creating a sustainable, green community, built collaboratively through citizen engagement, environmental education, government partnership and innovative business development.
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U.S. Coalition on Sustainability
The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) and Ignite Social Impact (Ignite) have partnered with the U.S. Coalition on Sustainability (USCS), a non-profit organization dedicated to unifying and accelerating humanity’s progress toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
In 2020, the USCS launched SustainChain™, a public service digital platform that connects innovators, impact investors, brands, NGOs, and alliances with a shared mission of building a more sustainable supply chain. With this partnership, the USCS is inviting members of CAI's community, which includes 3500+ entrepreneurs and 300+ spin-out companies from CAI's nine global innovation challenges, to become members of SustainChain. In addition, Ignite -- launched from CAI in 2020 -- will refer private U.S. companies, which are issuing securities through Regulation Crowdfunding on its funding portal, to SustainChain. Learn More |
Made Noble and Sustain Equity
The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI), Made Noble Corporation, Ignite Social Impact (Ignite), and Sustain Equity, LLC signed a memorandum of understanding partnering to connect tech-for-good entrepreneurs with technologies, mentorship, and capital.
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Conservation X Labs
Conservation X Labs, Ignite Social Impact, and the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) signed a memorandum of understanding to partner to advance “tech for good.”
Conservation X Labs is a Washington, DC-based technology and innovation company that creates solutions to stop the extinction crisis. CAI is a Maryland-based nonprofit that launches startups around promising inventions. Ignite is the first crowd equity funding portal for social impact companies. Learn More |
OpenGrants
OpenGrants, the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI), and Ignite Social Impact have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signifying their alignment to support deep technology, high-impact startups.
OpenGrants is a California-based software company that offers streamlined grant application and management services for startups, CAI is a Maryland-based non-profit that launches startups around promising inventions, and Ignite is an upcoming crowd-equity funding portal for deep tech, social impact startups. Learn More |
HealthTech Arkansas
HealthTech Arkansas and the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) have partnered to work together with healthcare researchers and early-stage companies to drive innovation in clinical environments. The Center for Advancing Innovation launches startups around promising inventions in order to unleash life-changing inventions with exponential impact; create knowledge-based jobs and new markets; boost the economy and engage diverse communities, including addressing economic inequality.
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CODAME
The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) and CODAME are partnering to unite artists with high-tech ventures. Cultivating "art spirit" in startups poises them for long-term success. They're better equipped to navigate uncertainty, make meaningful pivots, and ship disruptive solutions. Nurturing the humanities in high tech is essential to solving global-scale problems.
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JLABS (Johnson & Johnson Innovation)
The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI), the world’s largest virtual startup challenge-based accelerator, announced today a collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS to provide at least one startup from CAI’s Freedom from Cancer Startup Challenge lab and/or office space at JLABS @ TMC in Houston.
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Founder Institute
Founders gain access to capital-efficient, commercially viable inventions from federal labs through two complementary accelerator programs from the Center for Advancing Innovation and Founder Institute.
The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI), which leads the world’s preeminent global challenge-accelerator program to commercialize federally funded inventions, announced a new partnership with the Founder Institute, the world’s premier idea-stage accelerator and startup launch program. This initiative is created to strengthen efforts to increase the probability of launching successful startups to develop and commercialize federally funded inventions. Learn More |
Biotechnology Innovation Organization
The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the world's largest biotech trade association, is teaming up with the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) to engage the biotech community and assist in promoting the Freedom from Cancer Startup Challenge (FCSC), a unique initiative designed to advance and commercialize 100 cancer inventions for the prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer.
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AngelSpan
AngelSpan, the leading provider of investor relations services for early-stage companies, today announced an alliance with The Center for Advancing Innovation, a cutting-edge organization that has “cracked the code” on tech transfer and breakthrough commercialization.
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Open Therapeutics
Open Therapeutics and the Center for Advancing Innovation announce the formation of a unique intellectual property (IP) sharing and commercialization model.
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Oxford Global Ventures
Oxford Global Ventures and the Center for Advancing Innovation announce a partnership to utilize CAI's technology curation efforts to spur on entrepreneurial ideas and growth within the OGV ecosystem. Learn More |
Select Collaborations
Collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, and
the Heritage Provider Network
the Heritage Provider Network

The Heritage Provider Network, National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) are partnering to launch the Brain Challenge in order to launch new startups around 20 promising NIH inventions. This challenge will accelerate the commercialization of Federal agency brain-related inventions, spur economic growth, and provide Universities a platform to further develop their entrepreneurship learning portfolio.
Learn more here
Learn more here
Collaboration Agreement with the National Cancer Institute
and Avon Foundation

The Avon Foundation (AF), National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) have partnered to launch a “first of a kind” Business Plan and Start-Up Challenge for Breast Cancer (BC) inventions that have high commercial viability and are important to public health. This challenge will accelerate the commercialization of Federal agency and AF grantee BC inventions, spur economic growth, and provide Universities a platform to further develop their entrepreneurship learning portfolio.
Learn more here
Learn more here
Agreement to Perform Invention Due Diligence and Startup Challenge to Commercialize Inventions with the
National Aeronautic and Space Administration
National Aeronautic and Space Administration
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is launching “Startup NASA”, a new initiative to encourage the use of federally funded technologies by start-up companies. “Startup NASA” includes the opportunity for new companies to license NASA technologies with no up-front payment and kicks off an effort with the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) to encourage more space technology spin-offs by entrepreneurs. Startup NASA helps address two of the biggest challenges faced by start-up companies: raising capital and securing intellectual property rights. By eliminating up-front licensing fees, NASA is letting new companies hold onto their cash while securing the intellectual property rights needed to secure their competitive market space. This benefit is available to companies formed to commercialize NASA technology. In addition, to foster the creation of new start-up companies and encourage adoption of NASA technologies, NASA will work with the CAI to run a multi-phase business plan competition in 2016. CAI will review NASA’s portfolio of technologies and identify those that have near-term commercialization potential. CAI will conduct outreach teams to explore the market potential of the technologies and write business plans. The winners of the competition will be awarded a cash prize, provided by third-party venture capital investors, and will be encouraged to incorporate and pursue licensing the technologies from NASA, using their winnings as seed funding for the new business.
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Collaboration with the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation

The Medical Center of the Americas (MCA) Foundation, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization, is focused on creating a world class medical center to foster and accelerate biomedical innovation, creating new employment opportunities while meeting healthcare needs of the Paso del Norte region (the larger cross-border region of El Paso County; Doña Ana County, New Mexico; and Juárez, Mexico). The MCA is spearheading this regional initiative with the development of the Cardwell Collaborative biomedical research and commercialization building, the SPACE RACE and many other programs. www.MCAmericas.org
Research Institutes Offering Inventions in CAI Challenges
Arizona State University
Boston University Brigham Young University CDC Children's Hospital Los Angeles Children's National Hospital Clemson University Columbia University Duke University East Carolina University Eastern Virginia Medical School Emory University Florida State University George Washington University Georgia Tech Harvard University Houston Methodist Research Institute Johns Hopkins University Kansas State University Louisiana State University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mayo Clinic Medical College of Georgia Medical College of Wisconsin Medical University of South Carolina Michigan State University NASA Ames NASA Armstrong NASA Glenn NASA Goddard NASA Johnson NASA Kennedy NASA Langley NASA Marshall National Cancer Institute |
NCATS
NHLBI NHGRI NIAID NIBIB NICHD NIDCR NINDS NIST National Institute on Aging National Institute on Drug Abuse National Security Agency Nationwide Children's Hospital New Mexico Tech New York University Norfolk State University North Carolina State University Northwell Health Ohio State University Old Dominion University Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Princeton University Resonance House St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Stanford University Texas State University UC Berkeley UC Davis UC Los Angeles UC San Diego UC San Francisco UNC-Chapel Hill United States Army University of Arizona University of Arkansas |
University of Buffalo
University of Cambridge University of Central Florida University of Central Lancashire University of Cincinnati University of Colorado University of Florida University of Hawaii University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of Kansas University of Kentucky University of Maryland University of Maryland - Baltimore University of Michigan University of Missouri University of Nebraska - Lincoln University of Nebraska Medical Center University of New Mexico University of Oklahoma University of Pennsylvania University of Sheffield University of South Florida University of Southern California University of Tennessee University of Toledo University of Utah University of Virginia University of Washington University of Wisconsin Vanderbilt University Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Tech Wake Forest University Washington University in St. Louis Yale University |