Leidos joins UCF Innovation Districts Enterprise Partnership Program
Orlando, Fla. (February 11, 2020) – The University of Central Florida (UCF) Innovation Districts today announced Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE® 500 science and technology leader, as its first Enterprise Partner under the university’s newly launched Enterprise Partnership program. Under the program, life sciences companies within the Innovation Districts will have the opportunity to work with the Leidos Health Group through activities such as mentorship, pilot projects, and access to capital.
The Enterprise Partnership program provides early-stage companies with tools, training and infrastructure to become financially stable, high growth/impact enterprises. The program offers entrepreneurs an opportunity to connect with larger companies who can provide a multitude of benefits.
“We truly see this as a benefit not only to our clients, but to the larger companies as well,” said Carol Ann Dykes Logue, director of programs and operations for the UCF Innovation Districts. “The companies in our program are on the cutting edge of technology and innovative solutions. This gives companies like Leidos an opportunity to be the first to capitalize on these innovations. Our job is to prepare our companies and be sure they are ready to engage then make the connection. Both parties benefit greatly.
“We already had a working relationship with the Leidos Defense team in Orlando. When we established the Enterprise Partner program, we realized Leidos would be a great partner because of the caliber and focus areas of the company that align with our target industry clusters. We reached out to the Leidos team working with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville to stand up a Life Sciences Incubator and expanded our relationship with the company.”
With an eye on identifying and bolstering new life sciences companies in the healthcare realm at the outset, Leidos recently attended presentations with companies from the Innovation District. One presenting company, USEncryption, was subsequently invited to Leidos headquarters to provide a deeper dive into their data encryption technology, which was recently awarded a grant by the National Science Foundation, and has the potential to solve some critical challenges in working with healthcare data.
“Having the opportunity to see how these young companies are developing transformational medical technologies is beneficial to our mission,” said Dr. Harold Modrow, division manager of Life Sciences for Leidos. “These types of programs help keep us on the forefront of what could change an industry in the future.”
“There is simply no price tag that can be placed on how valuable the time we spent with Leidos was to our company,” said Leandro Veltri, co-founder and CEO of USEncryption. “Leidos is exactly the type of company we want to be talking to and we are extremely impressed with the UCF program for helping connect us.”
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For more information media should contact –
UCF Business Incubation Program: Carol Ann Dykes Logue, 407-635-9882, carolann.dykeslogue@ucf.edu; Rob Panepinto, 407-467-5689, rob.panepinto@ucf.edu; Alan Byrd, Alan Byrd & Associates, 407-415-8470, Alan@ByrdConnections.com
About UCF Innovation Districts: The University of Central Florida recently launched three Innovation Districts to provide unique resources to companies with the potential to scale into national and international businesses. Each Innovation District is highly focused on targeted industries and technologies based in that geographical area.
In these districts, there are a wide range of support services and programs focused on giving the entrepreneurs the tools they need to grow, including overreaching aspects of support, such as innovation labs, traditional incubator services, industry connectivity, experiential programming and program partnerships
Innovations Districts are centered around existing clusters of industry tied to the expertise of both the University and the overall community.
Specifically, they are:
- Research Park: Defense/Military, MST, Cyber, Photonics, Robotics, Energy, Space
- Downtown Orlando: Digital Media, Smart City, FinTech, Hospitality Tech
- Lake Nona: Lifesciences, Healthcare, Medical Simulation
The UCF Innovation Districts are part of the larger UCF Business Incubation Program.
About the UCF Business Incubation Program: The University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program is a community resource that provides early-stage companies with the tools, training and infrastructure to become financially stable, high growth/impact enterprises. Since 1999, this award-winning program has helped over 390 local companies reach their potential faster by providing vital business development resources.
With seven facilities throughout the region, the UCF Business Incubation Program is an economic development partnership between the University of Central Florida, the Corridor, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties, and the cities of Apopka, Kissimmee, Orlando and Winter Springs. For the 2016/17 and 2017 /18 fiscal years, the activities of these participating firms have helped sustain more than 6,275 local jobs and have had a cumulative impact of more than $888 million on regional GDP and more than $1.59 billion on regional sales. During the same period, the program has returned $12.03 for every $1 invested in the program. For more information, visit Incubator.UCF.edu
About Leidos: Leidos is a Fortune 500® information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world’s toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company’s 34,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $10.19 billion for the fiscal year ended December 28, 2018. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.
Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 28, 2018, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.
