Incubating the Future: Tennessee

Tech Journal South
April 2, 2008
By Rebecca Kaufman

In Nashville, Cumberland Emerging Technologies, Inc. (CET) provides incubation through its Life Sciences Center. The facility, in close proximity to Vanderbilt University, offers wet lab space, office space, equipment and resources to emerging life sciences companies.

CET is a joint initiative between Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Vanderbilt University and the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation.

In the Memphis area, Memphis Bioworks is developing the 6.5 acre UT- Baptist Research Park on property donated by Baptist Memorial Health Care. The complete, ten-year development plan includes a six-building research, incubator, and commercial center dedicated to the bioscience industry.

Construction has already begun on the first building, a biocontainment laboratory.

The University of Tennessee Research Foundation (UTRF) also owns and operates a technology incubator facility at the Health Science Center in Memphis, which provides office and laboratory space, as well as business development services in conjunction with TriStar Enterprises, for companies associated in some way with UT researchers. UTRF recently opened another facility in Knoxville.

East Tennessee State operates the ETSU Innovation Lab, a full service incubator, in partnership with the Tennessee Small Business Development Center and the ETSU Entrepreneurial Leadership Program.

In Franklin, the Cool Springs Life Sciences Center is a 10-acre life-sciences focused research and development campus, offering facilities to companies at all stages of development, including start ups. Still in development, the three buildings of the CSLSC will provide over 140,000 square feet of space.

The first building is now operational, providing over 32,000 square feet of lab and office space, including 8,000 square feet of incubation space.