The Deshpande Center's mission is to empower some of MIT’s most talented researchers to make a difference in the world by developing innovative technologies in the lab and bringing them to the marketplace in the form of breakthrough products and new companies. In turn, those innovations can help solve large and daunting problems in health, information technology, energy, and other fields.
The center awards research grants and provides other types of assistance to faculty members whose work shows the potential to benefit society, transform markets and industries, and improve the quality of life for people across the globe.
The Desphande Center helps MIT faculty and students commercialize breakthrough technologies and inventions.
To streamline a researcher’s journey “from idea to impact,” the Deshpande Center carries out several core activities.
- Educating grant recipients about the innovation process.
- Coaching grantees on how to commercialize their inventions and launch startup companies—skills they can leverage throughout their careers.
- Providing research teams with mentoring and guidance from respected industry experts, venture investors, startup specialists, and entrepreneurs.
- Encouraging today’s innovators to impart the same skills and opportunities they have received to succeeding generations of MIT scientists and engineers.
- Nurturing MIT’s unique ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship.
- Assisting organizations that want to follow MIT’s example in fostering innovation and accelerating the impact of new discoveries.