By Matthew Keck–

The University of Louisville hired three “entrepreneurs-in-residence” (EIRs) to help their research-backed inventions make it to market quicker.

The three EIRs are: Josh Nickols, CEO of Enhale Medical, Jeff Cummins, senior finance executive and Charley Miller, co-founder and head manager of TouchCast. Each EIR will serve a six-month term, beginning in April.

Nickols said in the release that he is excited to work with U of L and to drive the innovations towards market.

According to U of L’s release, the EIRs will be responsible for guidance on product development, business planning and other activities to accelerate the commercialization of university inventions. They will be working directly with U of L’s EVPRI Commercialization EPI-Center and researchers.

President Neeli Bendapudi said, “U of L research had produced groundbreaking innovations that have impacted a great number of industries and could impact so many more.”

Bendapudi went on to say how accelerating these ideas to the market place will make the world a better place.

U of L is one of 120 U.S. universities ranked as “Research 1.” This means that U of L has high research activity according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

Programs that the EIRs will be working with are: AWARE:ACESS, Coulter Translational Research Partnership grants, ExCite and Innovation Corps (I-Corps). These four programs focus on areas from underrepresented entrepreneurs to healthcare related products. U of L is the only university to receive all four of these programs and have dubbed them the “superfecta.”

Funding for the EIRs is provided by the Louisville Entrepreneurship Acceleration Partnership (LEAP). LEAP is a public-private partnership led by U of L and backed by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. They aim to grow Louisville’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.

File Photo / The Louisville Cardinal