The free event, at the Speed Art Museum’s Speed Cinema, is open to the public and boasts an agenda packed with workshops, speakers and other fun activities for aspiring and current founders.

“Our goal with the AWARE:ACCESS program, and this event, is to help entrepreneurs and startups grow,” said Jessica Sharon, director of Innovation Programs at UofL. “At the summit, we’ll have a lot of resources to help them do that, from advice on applying for federal grant funding to how to make the perfect elevator pitch.”

In addition to workshops and speakers, attendees can also participate in a “Shark Tank”-style pitch competition. They can also speak one-on-one with experts in finance, accounting, marketing, human resources and pretty much any other topic a budding entrepreneur might need to know about.

More information and registration are .Ěý

While the summit is open to all, the AWARE:ACCESS, or Accelerating Women and Underrepresented Entrepreneurs: Accelerate Entrepreneurial Success, program has a special focus on women and underrepresented entrepreneurs.Ěý

The program, a National Science Foundation-backed partnership between UofL and Indiana University, provides support to help these entrepreneurs submit more competitive proposals for SBIR and STTR grant funding.

Women entrepreneurs represent only , despite making up some 51 percent of the total population. Collective minorities represent only 10 percent of awardees, combined.

“Diversity unlocks so many new perspectives, ideas and potential innovations,” said Robert S. Keynton, interim executive vice president for Research and Innovation. “In accelerating the success of women and underrepresented entrepreneurs, we hope to improve that diversity of thought and spur new growth and opportunities for all.”

AWARE:ACCESS is one of UofL’s suite ofĚý dubbed the “Superfecta,” to support the translation of research into viable commercial products.ĚýUofL is one of only a handful of universities in the country to receive each of these, and isĚýthe only one to receive all of them.

It’s part of a pilot program called , or Accelerating Women and Underrepresented Entrepreneurs: Accelerate Entrepreneurial Success, which is in its first year of providing networking, training and other support.

Speakers with UofL ties, including some founders, were highlighted at the program’s Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Summit in Indianapolis on Oct. 5.

One of those presenters was Maggie Galloway, CEO of Louisville-based health tech company , which she co-founded as a UofL MBA student. She said programs like AWARE:ACCESS are important because “the odds are against female and minority founders.”

reports that just 2 percent of venture capital went to female startup founders in 2016. According to , a recent study of more than 60,000 startups found just 88 were led by black women — about 4 percent of the 2,200 total women-led tech startups in the U.S.

“Women and underrepresented researchers have great innovations, but have lagged in successful federal grant funding programs for early stage startup companies: SBIR and STTR awards,” said UofL’s Dr. Rob Keynton, lead investigator. “We’re trying to change that with this program.”

Galloway said the program isĚý an extension of UofL’s current support for entrepreneurs, such as technology licensing, the FirstBuild makerspace and the LaunchIt business accelerator.

“UofL’s involvement in this program shows that UofL is not only committed to the commercialization of great UofL technologies, but also supportive of the entrepreneurs driving the commercialization,” she said.

Another presenter is Dr. Angelique Johnson, who founded her health-tech company, MEMStim LLC, . She said programs like AWARE:ACCESS also support women and minorities who want to found companies in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM.

“This program is important, because too few women and minority entrepreneurs are going into the STEM space,” she said. “We need more attention placed on this critical issue.”

The AWARE:ACCESS program, funded through a National Science Foundation grant, is a partnership between UofL, Indiana University and Missouri University of Science and Technology.

NSF program director, Dr. Jesus Soriano, said he hopes AWARE:ACCESS “will enable more underserved groups to get entrepreneurship training and achieve their technological and commercial potential, as well as help enhance U.S. leadership in science and engineering.”

MEMStim is now working to translate its technology to the clinical marketplace. After its founding, Inscope went on to win , and soon, will launch its first device into the market at the American College of Emergency Medicine conference.