Fellows & Associates
Each year, Yale Ventures recruits Yale students to join our interdisciplinary teams to work on projects ranging from research and strategy to financial modeling, technology marketing, and market sizing for new ventures while working closely with Yale faculty, industry experts, and Yale Ventures staff.
Blavatnik Fellows
The Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship is designed to foster entrepreneurial skills in the life sciences, linking emerging business leaders with breakthrough innovations from across Yale University. The Blavatnik Fellows work side-by-side with past Blavatnik awardees and applicants as well as participate in screening for this coming year’s applicants, sit with board members during deliberation, and work with a number of Entrepreneurs-in-Residence to ready faculty for final applications.
Blavatnik Associates
Blavatnik Associates are graduate and professional school students at Yale chosen through a competitive application process who will help provide both technical and business insights around faculty innovations being considered for support by the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation. The Blavatnik Fund supports Yale faculty in the commercialization of applied research and technology in the life sciences. Working in close conjunction with Yale Ventures staff, entrepreneurs-in-residence and Blavatnik Fellows, Associates will work in small teams to help identify the most promising projects in healthcare.
The Roberts Innovation Fund
The Roberts Innovation Fund at Yale is a new initiative launched in 2022 to accelerate Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS) engine of innovation. Thanks to a generous gift from Yale alumnus Will Roberts ’90, the Roberts Innovation Fund will provide funding, mentoring and business training to assist in the commercialization of breakthrough inventions that solve real-world problems. Just as importantly, faculty applicants will receive valuable feedback from the Fund’s director as well as from an external advisory board from industry, all of whom have invested in and/or built technology ventures.
Overseen by the Office of the Dean of SEAS in partnership with Yale Ventures, the Fund will focus on technologies that show promise towards having an impact within the domains of artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, blockchain technology, trustworthy computing, computational modeling, and more.
Canaan-Yale Fellows
Canaan-Yale Fellows are select graduate and professional school students at Yale who work in multidisciplinary teams to provide strategy and leadership around startups in Canaan Partner’s portfolio. Canaan Partners is a $4B global venture capital firm focused on seed and early-stage technology. Students are divided into two multidisciplinary teams to provide strategy and leadership around startups in Canaan’s portfolio. This opportunity is particularly geared to grad students in the biological sciences as well as medical school students with strong backgrounds in the life sciences. Students commit to: participating for one academic year for 40 hours per semester. Students receive: Education and direction for engagement from Canaan as they work with two projects in the fall and two in the spring, as well as a stipend. Students who complete the program will then have the opportunity to explore projects focused on select Yale research.
Yale Venture Lab
Yale Venture Lab is a new initiative launched by Yale Ventures in 2022 to accelerate Yale faculty ventures which have already established proof-of-concept. Working across six major themes (Therapeutics, Medtech, Digital Healthcare, Data Science, High Tech, and Climate Tech), individual innovators will meet with small teams of experts (Yale EIRs) drawn from industry and the investment world to refine their development tasks, better understand the business landscape, and think critically about products and indications. Venture Lab Fellows must be extremely organized, possess excellent communication skills, and be capable of interacting with a wide range of domain experts.
Yale Ventures Associates
These associates work on the team supporting IP & Licensing, Corporate Strategy and Engagement, and Innovation Community.
Technology Marketing Associates
Technology Marketing Associates will support the Yale Ventures business development team to develop impactful marketing materials for public-facing consumption. Marketing materials and decks are used to pitch Yale’s available technologies to potential commercial partners and/or venture capital firms. Candidates will work closely with business development leads, the principal investigators and their research teams to:
- Conduct market research on the competitive landscape and identify trends in the specific area of invention.
- Create materials that clearly and succinctly explain what the technology’s business case and commercial appeal is for business audiences.
Colton Associates
The Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Yale, founded through a generous donation from Judith and Stewart Colton, is committed to advancing innovative and translational research in autoimmune and allergic diseases. Colton Associates support faculty innovators in their pursuit to advance research findings to a stage where technology transfer to a commercial partner or a start-up company becomes a viable prospect.
