Signature Research Centers

Oregon InC invests in three Signature Research Centers (SRCs): Oregon Nanoscience & Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI), Oregon Translational Research & Development Institute (OTRADI), and VertueLab. These SRCs support the commercialization of research and development (R&D) from the private sector and universities and include investments in industries where Oregon has innate advantages and are potential high-growth sectors in the future.

Program page decorative image of people in a lab

Contact

Loading...

Oregon has long been known as a place of discovery—a state founded by pioneers investing in new horizons. At ONAMI, the trailblazing continues.

The Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute is where academia, business and government come together to accelerate research and bring breakthrough ideas to market. It's where entrepreneurs have access to cutting-edge resources and investors have opportunities to fund groundbreaking technology. ONAMI pulls it all together with opportunities for collaborative research and a commercialization program that provides critical, early-stage business counsel.

ONAMI, founded in 2003, is Oregon’s first “signature research center” that is dedicated to commercializing scientific research into successful new Oregon companies. ONAMI currently focuses on starting companies from the earliest stages, providing executive leadership, market research, team building, financial planning and investment raising.

Since the inception of its commercialization gap fund in late 2006, ONAMI has:

$12M in commercialization projects and company investments
$1.3B in financial leverage, of which over 95% is private capital investment.

For more information, visit https://onami.us/

OTRADI is a nonprofit innovation center that advances bioscience commercialization, product development, and startup business incubation in Oregon. The OTRADI Bioscience Incubator (OBI), Oregon’s first and only bioscience-focused incubator, fills the gap between research and commercialization by providing resources and expertise found nowhere else in Oregon. The OBI is home to thirty-one startup companies working on innovative new health and wellness products, including drugs/therapeutics/treatments, diagnostics, medical devices, wearables, consumer health products, and digital health IT products.

Since 2008, OTRADI has:

Disributed over $222M in leveraged funds;
Supported over 400 Oregon jobs; and
Housed 41 companies in the OBI.

For more information, visit https://www.otradi.org/.

VertueLab (formerly Oregon BEST) is a nonprofit innovation center that merges innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, and impact investing to address and resolve global environmental challenges. VertueLab provides funding and entrepreneurial support to Oregon cleantech startups, helping them to scale and create jobs, generate revenue, and attract new capital to the state. Startups have access to a wide range of support and acceleration programs from mentorship and access to funders, to investor readiness, funding for prototypes, assistance obtaining R&D grants, university connections, and more. For innovators, VertueLab provides acceleration programs to help their companies grow and attract capital. For funders, VertueLab amplifies their philanthropic and economic development goals. For impact investors, VertueLab is a conduit for direct investing for a combination of financial return and measurable impact.

Since 2007, VertueLab has:

Distributed over $440M in leveraged funds;
Created and retained more than 500 Oregon jobs; and
Provided over $7.5M in funding to Oregon companies.

For more information, visit https://vertuelab.org/.