PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Science Exchange, the world’s leading and most secure enterprise platform for outsourced research and development (R&D), today announced a strategic collaboration with Venture Catalyst, a unit within the Technology Management and Corporate Relations division of the UC Davis Office of Research which supports the development of new ventures fueled by university research.
Science Exchange will provide entrepreneurs and startups participating in the Venture Catalyst Smart Toolkit for Accelerated Research Translation (START™) Program immediate access to the private R&D marketplace with dedicated PhD-level sourcing support around the clock and a special contracting structure to accelerate their research and development projects.
“The Science Exchange platform solves the challenges of R&D outsourcing by providing scientists with on-demand access to a diverse network of prequalified external providers under a single relationship while also providing sourcing departments with more information and control over their outsourcing spending,” said Elizabeth Iorns, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Science Exchange. “We are thrilled to be collaborating with Venture Catalyst to offer a customized R&D marketplace and help its portfolio of companies complete their research and clinical projects more quickly and efficiently. It’s clear that Venture Catalyst is supporting companies with extremely promising technologies in development, and we’re honored to help get their discoveries to market faster.”
With this collaboration, Science Exchange will support client-specific governance, approval workflows, and preferred vendors, all the while enabling instant access to research services and custom products from 2,500 providers in over 6,000 research areas. To help external service providers minimize the risk frequently associated with outsourcing, Science Exchange’s guarantee ensures complete protection of data, assets and performance of agreed-upon services, all backed by the best-in-class, SOC 2-compliant information technology security infrastructure. Science Exchange’s ISO 9001-certified quality assurance system and dedicated regulatory compliance team also support regulated outsourced work.
Venture Catalyst is the latest innovation and startup support organization to choose to partner with Science Exchange. They now join more than 30 enterprise organizations including most of the top 20 biopharma companies that use Science Exchange to more efficiently manage outsourced R&D.
“Science Exchange offers a unique platform for our startups to connect with a broad network of qualified scientific providers,” said Dushyant Pathak, Associate Vice Chancellor of Research and Executive Director of Venture Catalyst at UC Davis. “We anticipate that working with Science Exchange through the START Program will enable us to commercially advance the discoveries made by Venture Catalyst-supported startups and early-stage companies, in areas as diverse as biomedical and life sciences, agriculture and animal health, and physical sciences and engineering.”
About Science Exchange
Science Exchange is the world's
leading platform for outsourced research, providing an efficient
procure-to-pay platform for ordering services from a network of more
than 2,500 qualified scientific service providers, all with
pre-established contracts in place that protect client intellectual
property and confidentiality. The platform increases scientists' access
to innovation and improves productivity, freeing them up from the
administrative tasks and delays associated with sourcing, establishing
and managing service provider contracts. Additionally, the Science
Exchange enterprise program enables R&D organizations to consolidate
research outsourcing spend into a single strategic relationship, driving
efficiency and cost savings. Since being founded in 2011, Science
Exchange has raised more than $58 million from Norwest Venture Partners,
Maverick Capital Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Collaborative Fund,
Index Ventures, OATV, the YC Continuity Fund, and others. For more
information, visit www.ScienceExchange.com.
Follow the company on Twitter @ScienceExchange.
About Venture Catalyst
Venture Catalyst furthers the
University’s educational, research and public mission by supporting UC
Davis students, faculty and researchers in translating science,
engineering and innovative research through well-resourced startups,
into societal impact. Venture Catalyst engages collaboratively with
internal and external drivers of innovation and works closely with the
University’s Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. In addition to
its Smart Toolkit for Accelerated Research Translation (START™) program,
Science Translation and Innovative Research (STAIR™) Proof-of-Concept
grants, Venture Catalyst supports a network of regional technology
startup incubators through its Distributed Research Incubation & Venture
Engine (DRIVE™) Network.
