Abid (last name in transcript: Calshrestha) said he joined the Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) as executive director on July 1, 2024, and described MII’s work to identify university technologies and support commercialization and follow-on investment.

Abid told the Ways and Means Committee on Jan. 15 that MII traditionally works with five research institutions — Johns Hopkins University; University of Maryland College Park; University of Maryland Baltimore County; University of Maryland Baltimore; and Morgan State University — and that the initiative invests roughly $5,000,000 annually in university technologies and startups. He said MII’s investments have produced $800,000,000 in follow-on funding, helped create 200 startups and sustained about 400 jobs, with two-thirds of the follow-on capital from private sources.

Baltimore Innovation Initiative (BII)

Abid described a two-year Baltimore Innovation Initiative (BII) pilot funded through the Baltimore Tech Hub to extend MII’s model to 20 public colleges, universities and community colleges across the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson metropolitan area. He said the BII will support technology development, programming, training and technology-transfer infrastructure and that TEDCO plans a request for applications in February with awards and ongoing support starting in June.

Equity and inclusivity goals

Abid said MII has expanded prior pilots that added Frostburg State and Bowie State University to reach institutions developing nascent research and entrepreneurship programming. He described the BII as a way to broaden access to commercialization resources and to connect nontraditional research institutions, community colleges and teaching colleges to the state’s innovation ecosystem.

Committee engagement and next steps

Abid told legislators he will return with results from the BII and that TEDCO intends to work with campus partners on infrastructure, programming and tech transfer. Committee members asked whether the Bowie/Frostburg pilot should be continued; Abid said MII would welcome continued funding or local support and that the program produced student accelerators and other capacity-building activities on those campuses.

Ending: Abid said he plans to visit partner campuses and report back to the committee on BII implementation and outcomes.