Partnerships
Leveraging the co-location of academic, corporate, and government R&D teams to support technology translation.
UT prizes partnerships with industry, which inform and support use-inspired research, accelerate the pace of technology commercialization, and strengthen our education and training programs. UT students are often hired by our industry partners. For more information on our corporate partnership programs, contact our Partnerships team.
Our goals with the institute are to create a broad tapestry of researchers not constrained by a physical location while creating opportunities for collaboration with industry partners, national labs, and other universities, colleges, and K-12 partners.”
—Jon Phipps, IAMM Director of Operations
Placed-based Innovation & Partnerships
UT’s place-based initiatives weave together research, workforce development, entrepreneurship, and economic supports to advance inclusive innovation-focused economic growth.
IAMM has a significant presence on the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm, a mixed-use innovation hub developed to co-locate academic and industry R&D, workforce development, and start-up incubation programs. Strategic corporate partners like Volkswagen embed their R&D teams on the Cherokee Farm campus.
Explore co-location opportunities at the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm
IAMM also supports programs in UT’s Manufacturing & Design Enterprise, a Knoxville-based facility that co-locates programs supported by manufacturing companies, UT, and community and technical college partners.
Impactful Partnerships
BAE Systems
UT partners with BAE Systems on projects in support of the US Army. BAE Systems is an international defense, aerospace, and security company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land, and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, security, information technology solutions, and customer support services.
Eastman Innovation Center
In 2022, Eastman extended its years-long relationship with UT through this dedicated innovation center, located at UT. The partnership is deeply focused on materials science and chemical engineering solutions to better understand and develop solutions for a more sustainable world.
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 114,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Lockheed Martin Huntsville, Alabama, location supports the backbone of America’s missile defense with the Command, Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) system.
The University of Tennessee Space Institute in Tullahoma, Tennessee, is less than an hour from Huntsville, and works in partnership with Lockheed Martin to achieve the national missions of the Department of Defense, NASA, and the aerospace industry.
Volkswagen
In 2020, Volkswagen and UT announced the UT Research Park as the home of the first Volkswagen North American Innovation Hub. The hub harnesses the expertise and capabilities of UT, Volkswagen, and ORNL with a multi-project focus on composites; creating novel, bio-derived materials for a circular economy; wireless fast charging; and more to find practical and sustainable solutions.
Y-12 National Security Complex
The Y-12 National Security Complex is a premier manufacturing facility dedicated to making the nation and the world a safer place and plays a vital role in the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Security Enterprise. Y-12 helps ensure a safe and effective US nuclear weapons deterrent. Y-12 also retrieves and stores nuclear materials, fuels the nation’s naval reactors, and performs complementary work for other government and private-sector entities.
On-Campus Opportunities
The SPARK Innovation Center provides early-stage technology companies access to faculty and student talent, world-class research labs and facilities, and the entrepreneurial support they need to become successful companies.
New ventures formed by UT innovators to commercialize their technologies tap the wrap-around services provided by UT’s Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, including its NSF I-Corps program and Alumni Mentor programs, as well as Technology Maturation and proof-of-concept funding available through the Chancellor’s Venture Fund and the University of Tennessee Research Foundation.
Postdoctoral fellows and graduate students considering careers as entrepreneurs in high-growth companies participate in entrepreneurship training coordinated through the Graduate School.