Entrepreneurship Program

Meet the 2023 Flinn Foundation Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program participants

The Flinn Foundation Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program offers funding, professional support, connections, and networking opportunities to Arizona early-stage bioscience firms.

The program provides $30,000 in non-dilutive funding support for up to six firms each year, administered through a nonprofit partner, plus a professionally developed, yearlong plan specific to the needs of the individual firms that helps them advance to commercialization and become investor-ready.

Exclusive opportunities are offered to the competitively selected firms to engage with the state’s bioscience, academic, and policy leaders, including one-year memberships to Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee and the Arizona Bioindustry Association. Firms are also invited to convenings with fellow bioscience entrepreneurs.

The application typically opens in September for the following year’s program. A timeline of key dates will be released during the summer.

The 10th cohort of the Flinn Foundation Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program was announced in February 2023.

Learn more:
On the rise in 2023: Six Arizona bioscience startups
Application requirements and program eligibility
Meet the program participants from 2014 to today

Background

In 2002, the Flinn Foundation unveiled Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap, the long-term strategic plan to advance Arizona’s bioscience sector. One of the four strategies of the Roadmap is to create a critical mass of bioscience firms in Arizona. In 2014, the Roadmap was updated, with the first goal being to “Form a hub of bioscience entrepreneurs and new enterprises across Arizona.”

To help address this need, the Flinn Foundation launched the Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program to foster entrepreneurship and help bioscience founders develop their early-stage companies into successful and sustainable businesses in Arizona.

Since 2014, the Flinn Foundation has selected 60 Arizona bioscience firms to participate in the program through a competitive process; its nonprofit partners have provided $1.78 million in funding support to participating firms. The 2023 program participants include two companies each from Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tucson.

For more information about the program, contact Mary O’Reilly, Ph.D., Flinn Foundation Vice President, Bioscience Research Programs at moreilly@flinn.org or 602-744-6837.