Adjacent to the Ammon Pinizzotto Biopharmaceutical Innovation Center will be the Chemours Discovery Hub, which is expected to bring approximately 350-400 research and development (R&D) scientists and staff from the Chemours Company, a Fortune 500 company, to STAR Campus by the end of this year.

Heidi Martelock, process development manager for the Chemours Company, a global leader in chemistry and advanced materials, called the new environment “instrumental” for improved collaboration and continued growth, especially as new tenants — “maybe some in the room” — consider making Delaware and STAR Campus their future home.

Significantly, Martelock said, STAR Campus also represents access to UD research teams and — students, for internships, co-ops and jobs. 

“We see ourselves as providing opportunities for students. We hope that some of these students, when they graduate, will choose Chemours as their place to work,” Martelock said.

Labs and incubator spaces

While at UD, visitors had the opportunity to tour STAR Campus incubators and labs. Highlights of the tour included the CHS demonstration kitchen, health innovation design lab and health care simulation lab, all designed to provide students with research opportunities, training and skills to ensure job-readiness.

Mike Bowman, president of the Delaware Technology Park (DTP), showed the visitors through the DTP@STAR incubator space. Eunjung Eom, a junior assistant at Institut Pasteur Korea, said she chose to visit UD because she had heard from colleagues that UD’s “biotechnology ecosystem was well-organized.” Her work includes efforts to support bio-startup companies to get off the ground, she said, making the information provided during the UD visit useful as a benchmark for how to create similar support programs in Korea.

Companies that get their start in UD’s incubator space vary from faculty/student driven companies that grow out of University research, to local, national or international scientists and businesses with ideas who are in need of a place to get going.

“This is the best of the best of the little guys,” said Bowman.

Vara Prasad, a senior director of product development at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, called the incubator spaces at STAR Campus “fantastic,” particularly for early stage startups. Specifically, he pointed to the ability for small science-based businesses to occupy smaller lab spaces to work on and grow their innovations, while leveraging the incubator’s wider, shared facilities and business advisory services, and access to University assets, including faculty, students and equipment.

“It’s wonderful. I’m surprised how much they [UD] have done here,” Prasad said.

Robert Huberty, a retired chemical engineer who spent nearly 40 years with 3M, agreed. Huberty, president of RJH Enterprises Inc., called himself an angel investor and said that he attends conferences like BIO2019 as a way to stay engaged in the innovation landscape. He was particularly impressed with the development and progress on the STAR Campus, especially the use of a public-private partnership with a developer to develop the space.

“You’re making rapid progress … it’s pretty exciting,” Huberty said. 

Already STAR Campus comprises 1 million square feet of real estate, in use and under construction, including labs, offices, clinical, incubation and coworking space. Construction is currently underway on a new and revitalized train station, too, to ensure easy access by Northeast industry partners. 

Future development plans include additional amenities to serve a growing number of residents, collaborators and visitors, such as hotel and conference spaces, housing and retail amenities.

The Delaware tour was sponsored by UD, Christiana Care Health System, Delaware Prosperity Partnership, Delaware Bioscience Association and Delaware Biotechnology Institute. The day-long trip also included a stop at Incyte, a Wilmington-based pharmaceutical company that ranks No. 7 on the Forbes list of the world’s most innovative companies.