The Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) was created as a partnership between the State of Maryland and five Maryland academic research institutions (Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, University of Maryland College Park, University of Maryland Baltimore and University of Maryland Baltimore County.) The program is designed to promote commercialization of research conducted in the partnership universities and leverage each institution’s strengths. The Innovation Commercialization Program was created to foster the transition of promising technologies having significant commercial potential from Qualifying Universities, where they were discovered, to the commercial sector, where they can be developed into products and services that meet identified market needs. Specifically, it is the intent of the Program to foster the commercialization of such technologies through technology validation, market assessment, and the creation of start-up companies in Maryland based on a technology from a Qualified University (a University Start-up), and to accomplish this through collaborations between various schools, departments, and institutions within and among the Qualifying Universities and among other research organizations in the State.