July 23, 2013

Contact: Nicole Ruediger, nruedige@umbc.edu, 410-455-5791

Today, bwtech@UMBC, the oldest university-affiliated research and technology park in Maryland, announced that it has leased all of its space. The park is situated on seventy-one acres and has a total of 525,000 square feet. Eighty thousand square feet of that is wet laboratory space. The remaining 445,000 square feet house technology and office space.

The park started back in 1989 – with two trailers and just five companies. By 2006, the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park was a major player –boasting 42 companies, bringing thousands of jobs to Maryland, and generating $100 million in income. Now, seven years later, the park has over 100 companies and is widely recognized as one of the top parks for nurturing small companies. Today, bwtech@UMBC’s annual economic impact on the state is estimated to be over $300 million.

The park consists of three incubators: cybersecurity, life sciences and clean tech. The cybersecurity incubator is the fastest growing with 26 companies. There are about 20 incubators in Maryland, but bwtech@UMBC is one of only two working to grow the region’s cybersecurity industry.

"I’ve been involved in incubators for twenty years," says Ellen Hemmerly, president and executive director of bwtech@UMBC who has spent 15 of those years at bwtech. "In all my years of working with area incubators, the bwtech cyber incubator is the fastest growing.

In addition to the cyber incubator companies, the park has an additional seventeen cyber companies. This makes the bwtech@UMBC cybersecurity community the largest cluster of early-stage cybersecurity companies at a university-affiliated research park in the nation. That, says Hemmerly, is due in largepart to its relationship with UMBC, location (close proximity to BWI, the NSA, and Fort Meade) the park’s entrepreneurs-in-residence and the presence of companies at different stages of development. The park also provides workforce, educational and business development resources.

Even though the park is full, startup companies that want to join a successful incubator program shouldn’t despair says Hemmerly. “We are always accepting applications for new startups,” she says. “We have companies graduating and entering the incubator on a regular basis. In addition, we are creating cyber incubator expansion space.”

About bwtech@UMBC:
bwtech@UMBC, www.bwtechumbc.com is a 71-acre research and technology community at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). bwtech@UMBC offers collaboration with university faculty and students, and enjoys a strategic and convenient location, close to downtown Baltimore, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and Washington, D.C. bwtech@UMBC’s annual economic impact on the state is estimated to be over $300 million.