Dear Faculty Colleagues:

I’m sharing with you an opinion piece that was published today in The Baltimore Sun. In it, I talk about the central role research universities play in fueling Maryland’s entrepreneurial economy.

Growing faculty’s entrepreneurial activity is a high-priority goal of the University System of Maryland and one embraced by my fellow university presidents inside and outside the system.

We agree that among the state’s considerable entrepreneurial assets, the most important is you. The state of Maryland ranks No. 1 nationwide in academic R&D output, thanks to its incredibly productive faculty. Our job now is to build on this strength and more aggressively pursue commercialization of your discoveries, inventions, and innovations.

With a more robust infrastructure supporting technology transfer and more resources dedicated to it, the University of Maryland, Baltimore is well positioned to advance our commercialization agenda. I look forward to working with you to do just that.

Sincerely,

Jay A. Perman, MD
President