Zero-to-Entrepreneur: Turn Your Idea into a Real Business—At No Cost

Have a business idea but don’t know how to launch it? Whether you're a working professional, UCR student, or a local community member, Zero-to-Entrepreneur provides the knowledge, mentorship, and funding opportunities to help you build a technology-driven startup. This comprehensive 6-month program is designed to take you from idea to execution, with expert-led training, personalized mentorship, and access to startup resources.

Bring Your Innovations to Life With INNOVAR

INNOVAR is no-cost program designed to help you shape entrepreneurial ideas across various tech industries such as sustainable farming, transportation, medical devices, robotics, & much more. Learn to innovate solutions that can create positive change in the world & have the revenue potential for marketplace commercialization.

This 7-week program introduces the Lean Launchpad methodology and focuses on identifying and understanding the “customer” and their needs. Direct, face-to-face customer interviews provide insightful data to confirm product-market fit. In simple terms, customer interviews confirm that the entrepreneur is building something that somebody in the market wants, which significantly increases their chances of success. The program is focused on the market (customer's needs) and not the technology. It also introduces business concepts such as competition, market size, go-to-market, intellectual property protection and funding.

UC Riverside Faculty Fellowships

The 2023 Faculty Climate Fellows were selected through a competitive process, each receiving research funding and mentorship to advance climate adaptation research. Their projects focus on critical regional challenges, including agriculture, extreme heat mitigation, and emergency response.

To learn more about fellowship opportunities, please subscribe to the Office of Technology Partnership newsletter to get notified.

• Dr. Jeoffrey George (Botany and Plant Sciences)

  Dr. Jeoffrey George (Botany and Plant Sciences) is engineering climate-resilient alfalfa using gene editing to improve root plasticity and water-stress tolerance, ensuring long-term agricultural sustainability in drought-prone regions.

• Dr. Dawn Nigel (Botany and Plant Sciences)

  Dr. Dawn Nigel (Botany and Plant Sciences) is researching heat tolerance in rice, California’s second-largest crop, by identifying proteins that enhance resilience to extreme temperatures and exploring genetic modifications to improve yield stability.

• Dr. Xi Chen (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

  Dr. Xi Chen (Electrical and Computer Engineering) is developing advanced phase change materials for energy-efficient cooling in buildings, aiming to reduce energy consumption by 20% and enhance climate resilience in urban environments.

• Dr. Basak Guler (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

  Dr. Basak Guler (Electrical and Computer Engineering) is creating an AI-driven Climate Assistant that delivers real-time, multimodal early warnings for disaster-prone communities, ensuring better preparedness and response strategies.

• Dr. Mona Eskandari (Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering)

  Dr. Mona Eskandari (Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering) is pioneering a novel lung health diagnostic that uses viscoelasticity as a biomarker, improving access to pulmonary screening and disease monitoring for vulnerable populations.

Young Founders EcoTech Bootcamp: High School Workshops

The Young Founders EcoTech Bootcamp is an entrepreneurship program designed for high school students interested in sustainability, technology, and innovation. This 2-day workshop provides hands-on experience in developing startup ideas that address real-world environmental challenges such as clean energy, water conservation, sustainable transportation, and climate resilience. Through workshops, mentorship, and collaborative activities, students learn essential skills in business development, technology commercialization, and pitching their ideas. The goal of these bootcamps is to inspire and empower the next generation of changemakers by equipping them with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to create impactful solutions that contribute to a more sustainable future.

To get notified of the next upcoming high school workshops, please subscribe to the Office of Technology Partnership newsletter.