\u00a0<\/p>\n
UT Health San Antonio<\/a>, The University of Texas at San Antonio\u2019s<\/a> academic health center, has been recognized<\/a> as one of the nation\u2019s top 10 institutions for entrepreneurial readiness, ranking No. 7 in the inaugural Cure Innovation Index<\/a> for how effectively it helps researchers translate scientific discovery into real-world impact through biomedical innovation and commercialization.<\/p>\n The ranking coincides with San Antonio\u2019s rising profile as an entrepreneurial powerhouse. The Alamo City recently ranked No. 1 among the \u201c2026 Top 10 Most Entrepreneurial U.S. Cities<\/a>,\u201d leading the nation with 11% growth in active businesses in 2025, according to the GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab, which analyzes the impact of online microbusinesses on local economies.<\/p>\n UT Health San Antonio also ranked No. 31 in \u201cTop Universities\u201d and No. 45 in \u201cResearch Capabilities\u201d in the Cure Innovation Index, reflecting the scientific strength, infrastructure and funding base that support high-impact biomedical discoveries.<\/p>\n The index \u2014 released in late April by Cure, a New York-based healthcare innovation ecosystem \u2014 evaluated more than 6,000 universities and biomedical research institutions, identifying 303 top-performing institutions, including 243 universities and 60 institutes and centers.<\/p>\n The recognition underscores how the academic health center\u2019s innovations and discoveries are making a difference.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile rankings are always good to receive, the real test for our university is seeing our research outcomes live in the world and living up to our tagline to \u2018make lives better,\u2019\u201d said Anthony Robert Francis, associate vice president, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, Office of Innovation and Strategic Partnerships for UT San Antonio.<\/p>\n \u201cComparative data from the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) show [that] our active projects [are] double the national average and our portfolio expansion to non-IP projects is rare,\u201d Francis said.<\/p>\n The university is also helping to drive the local economy. As of October 2025, UT Health San Antonio alone enabled the launch of close to 75 companies from technologies developed by faculty and staff and UT San Antonio has helped create over 6,500 businesses.<\/p>\n By taking a more proactive approach to commercializing innovations and discoveries, the university\u2019s annual revenue from commercialization projects has grown fourfold since 2023 \u2014 climbing from $800K to $3.2 million a year, Francis stated.<\/p>\n Currently, the university has 176 active commercialization projects with a potential portfolio value estimated to exceed $600 million. Seventy-five of those projects are considered high impact with the potential to make a substantial economic impact on the local economy, Francis stated, adding that the university\u2019s market-first approach is helping to drive the revenue upswing for its commercialization projects.<\/p>\n Leaning into a market-first approach<\/p>\n Intellectual property remains an important part of commercialization. In 2025, The University of Texas System ranked No. 4<\/a> worldwide and No. 3<\/a> among U.S. universities for the number of U.S. utility patents granted, according to the National Academy of Inventors. At UT San Antonio, a market-first approach also recognizes that non-intellectual property projects can offer important opportunities to bring innovations and discoveries to market.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a fairly unusual process inasmuch as the market-first approach precedes whether there\u2019s any intellectual property there or not,\u201d Francis said. Most offices \u2026 first check whether there is any intellectual property. \u2026 We ask if there is a market first. So, the determination of whether there is a market or not then dictates what we do.<\/p>\n \u201cOur process is to look at the market and give that feedback to the inventor,\u201d Francis said. \u201cThat feedback shapes the project and determines what path to take. If you are opening the gate to things that have market value, then you are naturally opening the gate to all technologies and all things that might have consumer value. To my knowledge, there [are] very few universities that are doing that. So that has really been a point of competitive interest.\u201d<\/p>\n Francis used the analogy of a movie producer guiding a project from idea to reality.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a role missing in commercialization and it\u2019s the act of producing,\u201d Francis said, adding that fostering a \u201cproducer mindset\u201d is key. \u201cThis is an area in which we perhaps are leading, certainly in terms of how we get researchers activated in [the commercialization] space.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat producer mindset,\u201d Francis continued, \u201cis ultimately meant to support and elevate the researchers who are driving discovery across the university, because it\u2019s the university\u2019s multidisciplinary researchers who are the real stars.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey produce our stock, without which, we can\u2019t trade,\u201d Francis said. \u201cWe do not have the investment houses on the West Coast or the branding of Ivy Leagues, but we can mix [in] with any of them. This is what attracts potential partners and investors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 UT Health San Antonio, The University of Texas at San Antonio\u2019s academic health center, has been recognized…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-377584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}