As an interdisciplinary and independent Organized Research Unit (ORU) of the University of California, the Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics (IGB) strives to fulfill its mandate by forging both academic and industry-based research and technology collaborations. Cross-disciplinary partnerships serve as an integrating force to bring resources to bear on today’s most important life sciences problems, which are by their nature at the intersection of multiple fields of study. Key relationships fostered by IGB range from cross-campus faculty-to-faculty partnerships, to multiple institution research projects, as well as industry-academic relationships.

IGB fosters academic research partnerships by providing a meeting place for multi-disciplinary interactions, as well as seed funding and administrative support for interdisciplinary projects.

The Institute encourages industry partnerships by:

• Inviting industry participation in IGB events
• Dedicating staff and other support for industry-academia relations
• Encouraging joint industry-academia grant proposals
• Bringing together IGB researchers with highly-placed life science executives and venture capitalists to discuss faculty start-up ideas, and
• Providing a framework for company sponsorship of IGB activities.