The MIT Faculty Founder Initiative was created after a research project done by Sangeeta Bhatia, Susan Hockfield, and Nancy Hopkins revealed that women had founded less than ten percent of the 250 biotech startups created by MIT professors, even though 22 percent of MIT faculty are women.
From this data, the study estimated that if female faculty had been founding startups at the rate of male faculty, there would be forty additional biotech firms today.
In response to this study, the MIT Faculty Founder Initiative was launched in 2020 by the School of Engineering, in collaboration with the Martin Trust Center.
Our aim is to increase the number of female faculty members at MIT who start biotechnology companies through the MIT Faculty Founder Prize Competition, supported by Royalty Pharma. We believe this is important to level the playing field for female faculty while also bringing high-impact technologies to the world that are not currently being commercialized.
The Initiative is led by Sangeeta Bhatia (Wilson Professor of Engineering; member of four national academies; Lemelson Prize winner; 7-time founder including Glympse Bio and Satellite Bio) and Kit Hickey (Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan; serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Ministry of Supply) in collaboration with Susan Hockfield (MIT President Emerita and Professor of Neuroscience).
“What that means is 40 more potential medicines. The societal impact of that is really important. It’s a lost opportunity.“
Sangeeta Bhatia, MIT Wilson Professor of Engineering
Background
In the fall of 2021, the MIT Faculty Founder Initiative launched the MIT Faculty Founder Prize Competition, a $250K prize competition. The program accepted 9 MIT female faculty members into its inaugural cohort. Participants received mentorship, stipend money, advice, and support in incorporation, team formation, fundraising, IP strategy, and incubator space.
Throughout the year, participants had opportunities for 1:1 advising sessions with best-in-class mentors with biotech experience. The first year of the program culminated with a competition finale where the participants presented their pitch to a panel of judges from academia and biotech. The grand prize winner received $250,000. Two runner-up winners received $100,000 each. Eight of the nine faculty members who started in the program are continuing the development of their projects.
The MIT Faculty Founder Initiative aims to roll out our prize competition model to additional universities throughout the country, in order to become a national leader and support other universities in addition to MIT. The MIT Faculty Founder Prize Competition is supported by Royalty Pharma.
Impact of the MIT Faculty Founder Prize Competition
Through the MIT Faculty Founder Prize Competition, we have seen lasting impact:
“The MIT Faculty Founder Prize Competition definitely accelerated my courage. I would not have started my company if not for the program.”
“I’m launching a company because of the program. Otherwise, it would have been 3-4 years later.”
The first MIT Faculty Founder Prize Competition saw eight participants continuing on with their project beyond the competition as seen below.
