Fiscal Year 2026 marked a year of remarkable progress across the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and its four operating units, reflecting the commitment of Pitt faculty and student innovators and regional business owners to create impact for themselves and society with their ideas and research.
Innovation Institute
Pitt faculty and students submitted 429 invention disclosures during the year, just below last year’s record pace, and formed 15 startup companies, while climbing to #17 in the nation for universities issued U.S. patents.
This innovation was supported by a dynamic mix of education, mentoring and funding programs designed to facilitate the translation of discoveries in the classroom or lab to the market. This included the launch of the Pitt.INC program in partnership with the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences, which distributes awards of up to $50,000 to help researchers generate proof-of-concept data needed to advance promising discoveries toward commercialization.
A new Community of Innovators program, meanwhile, debuted a weekly innovator meet-up where participants networked to share stories and best practices while learning about different commercialization topics. The Community of Innovators sessions for the fall semester begin September 8.
Other specialty funding programs helped accelerate promising innovations on their commercialization path. Student and faculty innovators were also recognized through the Wells Student Healthtech Challenge (applications open). The Hunter Family Foundation Innovation in Neuroscience Program awarded a project focused on Parkinson’s disease. And the AgeTech Innovation Challenge funded an independent-living technology from the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.Â
Other highlights for the year included:
- Distinguished Professor John Kellum was named a 2025 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors—Pitt’s 17th faculty member to receive the honor—in recognition of his 26 U.S. patents and technologies licensed by six companies.
- Pitt startup companies achieved important milestones, including ECM Therapeutics, which received FDA approval for its first product, and Peptilogics Inc., which raised $78 million to assist with clinical trials begun earlier this year on its therapy to treat medical-device-related infections.
Big Idea Center
The Big Idea Center, Pitt’s hub for student innovation and entrepreneurship, had its most expansive year yet, engaging more than 2,600 students, with more than $100,000 in prizes awarded to student innovation teams. The ChangeMaker program saw applications surge 150%, welcoming its largest-ever cohort and the first participants from Pitt Greensburg, while four students earned ChangeMaker Scholar recognition.
The 2026 Big Idea Competition awarded nearly $80,000. Team Grapheon took top honors with a $25,000 grand prize for its plan to commercialize a method for converting low-cost feedstocks, including natural gas, into premium-grade graphite for use in lithium-ion batteries.
They followed this success by walking away with a $20,000 prize in the prestigious Rice Business Plan Competition in Houston.
Pitt student startup, Pittsburgh Coastal Energy, meanwhile, won Best Student Startup Pitch at SXSW.
Other student innovation achievements included student startup HEARTio, which closed a $4.25 million seed round for its platform for diagnosing heart disease.
Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence
The Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence served nearly 2,000 clients through more than 11,000 consulting hours, supporting 41 startups, $6.2 million in capital formation, $6.7 million in sales growth, and over 14,000 jobs.
Signature IEE member events included an intimate session with Savannah Bananas President Jared Orton on customer engagement, the 11th annual State of the Pittsburgh Economy conference co-hosted with PNC, and Family Business Day featuring Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, the nation’s largest family-owned real estate brokerage.
In programming highlights, PantherlabWorks launched a no-cost legal education series with GTC Law Group covering IP, AI, and entity formation. At the same time, its consultants helped grow several regional startups, including PastFinders, a Pittsburgh-born history app now operating in Philadelphia and Boston. The Entrepreneurial Fellows Class graduated 32 members and welcomed 31 new fellows as it entered its 28th year of providing education and mentoring for up-and-coming executives in regional businesses, and the Urban & Community Entrepreneurship Program graduated 36 entrepreneurs through its Community Power to Prosper cohorts.
IEE staff were recognized statewide and regionally: Lynne Nincke earned the Pennsylvania SBDC’s State Star award, and Nicole Hudson served on the NFL Draft Source Council, which helped direct $17.7 million to Pittsburgh businesses during the 2026 NFL Draft.
Office of Industry and Economic Partnerships (OIEP)
The Office of Industry and Economic Partnerships had one of its strongest years on record, closing nearly $40 million in industry-sponsored awards—about 30% of the university’s total sponsored research and a 60% increase over the previous fiscal year.
Roughly 55 industry awards closed at an average of more than $700,000 each, a 50% jump in average deal value, including six major health sciences agreements that generated over $23 million in sponsored research. OIEP expanded its global reach by hosting a second Pitt Health Sciences showcase at BIO International in San Diego, building on the success of its inaugural Boston event. The office also rolled out a new therapeutic area and department focus strategy, assigning business development team members to specific therapeutic areas and academic departments to deepen faculty relationships and improve deal conversion going forward.
Together, these results reflect accelerating momentum across Pitt’s innovation ecosystem—from invention disclosure to intellectual property protection to startup formation, regional economic development, and large-scale industry partnership.