Like most industries worldwide, the inventing community and product licensing process have both been subject to changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. I’ve had the opportunity to interview leaders in many companies that practice open innovation to ask them how Covid-19 impacted the way they do business with inventors and handle their new product submissions.

As the world looks beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, a consensus is emerging: certain measures to curb the growth of greenhouse-gas emissions will be central to global economic recovery. Awareness is also growing around the urgent need to slow the destruction of the natural world, and it is becoming clear that the two environmental crises—a changing climate and nature loss—are inextricably linked and compounding.

Revolution CEO (and former AOL CEO) Steve Case joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the platform’s “Rise of the Rest” 2021 playbook — which aims to spotlight promising startups outside of the coastal tech hubs — as well as the current state of big tech, his thoughts on Section 230, and more.

Image: https://finance.yahoo.com

Developer J. Brian O’Neill, founder of the substance-abuse chain Recovery Centers of America, has paid $103.3 million to a partner to become the primary owner of a sprawling former pharmaceutical complex in Upper Merion once owned by GlaxoSmithKline.

Image: MLP VENTURES

One of the questions I get asked the most is when I think the world will get back to normal. I understand why. We all want to return to the way things were before COVID-19. But there's one area where I hope we never go back: our complacency about pandemics.

Most entrepreneurs have found by now one or more of the many popular crowdfunding sites, and have the name and contact information for at least one of the big venture capital firms. But many have no insight or connections to the ethereal angel investment community, which In the U.S. contributes more than $25 billion to fund 70,000 startups every year.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

When colleges shifted operations online in the spring because of Covid-19, so much remained in question. How did the new coronavirus spread? What were its ill effects? Could colleges open for in-person instruction in the 2020-21 academic year, and what would happen if they did?

Image: CAMERON KRASUCKI

At first, she thought everything would work out if she just got up earlier. So Naomi Rutuku, an associate professor of English at Bakersfield College, began rising at 5 a.m. Her husband would make her coffee, then head out to his job as a wind-turbine technician, leaving her with a few hours of quiet before her kids, ages 2 and 4, demanded attention.

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, Kent Griswold hasn’t ridden an elevator in nearly a year.

But his elevator pitch is far from rusty. Asked to recite the pitch for his streaming TV series, he spills it fluidly without wasting a second.

“Wolf PAC is a reality show targeted to entrepreneurs with a dream that features a group of local investors who will work together to provide capital and resources and exposure to help those companies achieve their dreams,” he said without taking a breath.

Given the importance of innovation and advanced technology competitiveness to the U.S. economy, it is heartening to see recent congressional proposals, such as the Endless Frontier Act, that propose significantly increased federal funding for research and development (R&D) targeted at key national priorities. However, in considering budget proposals for significantly increased federal support, Congress will be confronted with an array of conflicting information; some of it wrong, much of it misleading.

The hottest thing in finance is four letters long. Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal has one. So does former House Speaker Paul Ryan. Same goes for silver-haired hedge-fund billionaire William Ackman.

It’s called a SPAC, and increasingly it is the favorite source of financing for private companies looking to go public. Richard Branson’s space-exploration firm Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. went public through a SPAC in 2019, and sports-wagering firm DraftKings Inc. did so last year. Nearly 300 SPACs are now seeking deals, armed with about $90 billion in cash. And more are rolling out at a furious clip—so far this year, an average of five new SPACs launched each business day.

Salim Abdool Karim was at a cricket match on December 26, Boxing Day, when he made the mistake of looking at his email. He had received a new report and the news wasn’t good. A heavily mutated coronavirus spotted in South Africa appeared to allow the virus to bind more tightly, and more easily, to human cells.

Karim, an epidemiologist and lead covid-19 adviser to the South African government, knew what the report meant. It could explain a drastic change in covid-19 in his country, where rising case numbers were turning every province red.

Image: Volunteer Thabisle Khlatshwayo is tested for the coronavirus before receiving a AstraZeneca's covid-19 vaccine in November at Soweto's Chris Sani Baragwanath Hospital outside Johannesburg, AP PHOTO/JEROME DELAY

A pair of newly published research papers co-authored by Wharton management professor David H. Hsu benchmark and explore commercialization drivers of academic science. The papers find that university research has produced pathbreaking innovations across many disciplines, many of which have been commercialized successfully. Yet, on average, universities capture 16% of the value they help create through licensing revenues or equity stakes in the startups their research spawns. Furthermore, some researchers and universities are much better able to commercialize their discoveries compared to others, even holding constant the discovery itself.

SEATTLE, Jan. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PitchBook, the premier data provider for the private and public equity markets, today released its 2020 Annual European Venture Report, which found venture capital (VC) deal value remained aloft and set a new annual record despite COVID-19 and the subsequent macroeconomic damage. Pandemic-induced opportunities and existing VC companies within technology and healthcare were well positioned to grow at the same time the deluge of capital deposited into larger rounds continued a decade-long trend. Capital from the US flowed freely into Europe and deal value with corporate VC (CVC) participation set a new annual record. After a lethargic start, exit value gathered momentum as the year progressed with one of the strongest quarterly showings ever in Q4. The pandemic created favourable market conditions for VC-backed companies seeking an exit in sectors such as biotech and pharma. European VC fundraising also achieved a record high in 2020 as LPs and GPs across the continent shrugged off long-term concerns posed by COVID-19. Fundraising processes have successfully adapted to remote tools, while larger VC vehicles have attracted burgeoning heaps of capital from existing and nontraditional investors to target pandemic-proof and pandemic-induced opportunities. Restrictions on travel, recessions and battered sectors have not stifled commitments from LPs, as GPs have been supplied with record levels of capital to put to work heading into 2021.

Economic development that is equitable, inclusive, and outcome-driven for residents begins by prioritizing community engagement and clearly linking that engagement to actionable initiatives with measurable results.

Image: https://smartincentives.org

The University of Maryland ranks among the nation's best online MBA programs, coming in at No. 10.

That's according to new rankings from U.S. News & World Report of the best online bachelor's and master's degree programs in a variety of fields. The rankings measure only programs that are designed to be administered online, not those that are temporarily virtual because of the coronavirus pandemic — though, industry observers expect that demand to rise as a result of the crisis.

Image: The University of Maryland cracked the top 10 in a new ranking of online MBA programs. JOHN GREIM

In the race to vaccinate people for Covid-19, everyone agrees front-line health workers, the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions should get priority. But one vital group is being overlooked. Even worse, some are criticizing efforts to vaccinate them as some sort of effort to “cut the line.”

I’m referring to the thousands of people working to produce critical vaccines, medications and diagnostics for Covid-19. In addition to Pfizer and Moderna, my company, Emergent BioSolutions, has been ramping up manufacturing...

Amy Adams with George Mason University. Nikki Hastings with CvilleBioHub, and John Newby with Virginia Bio join Rich Bendis to discuss the new “Virginia Bio-Connect” statewide consortium and scale-Up initiative.

Listen now via Apple http://apple.co/39ZDl0M, Google http://bit.ly/3iRzmHO, Spotify https://spoti.fi/2MqHTVJ, and TuneIn http://bit.ly/2Yelr58. #innovation #biotalk #university #healthcare #digitalhealth #healthtech #research #biotech

A nonprofit is considering Montgomery County as the site of a global pandemic center that would focus on prevention, research and response.

The Global Pandemic Prevention and Biodefense Center would serve as the “world’s epicenter” for pandemic prevention and biodefense ecosystem coordination.

County Council Member Hans Riemer proposed a $500,000 special appropriation to help fund the strategy phase of the project, which began in December. The appropriation was introduced at the council’s meeting on Tuesday.

Connected DMV, the nonprofit, focuses on initiatives with government, private industry academia and community partners. The nonprofit and other partners are leading the effort to craft plans for the center.

Making predictions is a tricky business at the best of times, but especially so after a year of upheaval. Even so, that didn’t stop people from trying their hand at reading the crystal ball. If anything, the uncertainty creates a stronger temptation for us to try to forecast the year ahead.

Out of the thousands of public 2021 predictions and forecasts available, there are plenty of one-off guesses. However, things really get interesting when a desperate majority of experts begin to agree on what might happen. In some ways, these predictions from influential experts and firms have a way of becoming self-fulfilling prophesies, so it’s worth paying attention even if we’re skeptical about the assertions being made.

Image: https://www.visualcapitalist.com