The Cure Innovation Index ranked UAB among top‑tier U.S. biomedical research institutions that convert discovery into therapies, companies and measurable health outcomes.The University of Alabama at Birmingham has earned national recognition for its ability to translate scientific discovery into real-world healthcare impact, ranking No. 42 out of 303 leading biomedical research institutions across the United States in the Cure Innovation Index.
The Cure Innovation Index is the first national, data-driven platform designed to assess how effectively U.S. biomedical research institutions convert discovery into therapies, companies and measurable health outcomes. The inaugural 2026 Index evaluated 303 leading institutions — 243 universities and 60 institutes and centers spanning all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico — selected from more than 6,000 nationwide.
According to the ranking, “UAB shows its greatest strength in market translation and entrepreneurial readiness, where it places in the upper tier of ranked universities.”
UAB is among the top five public institutions in the Southeast named, the only public university in the Deep South in the top 50 and the youngest university ranked in the Index’s top tier.
“Innovation means more than the thrill of discovery and the benefits of economic impact,” said UAB President Ray Watts. “At UAB, it means saving and improving more lives. That’s why we view this top-tier Cure Innovation Index ranking as just the beginning, and why we will continue to build our innovation and entrepreneurship momentum.”
The Index evaluates institutions across 25 indicators within three core domains:
- Research capabilities: the scientific strength, infrastructure and funding base that enable institutions to produce high-impact biomedical discoveries.
- Entrepreneurial readiness: how effectively institutions prepare and support researchers to pursue biomedical innovation and commercialization through training, mentorship and entrepreneurship-focused programs.
- Market translation: how successfully institutions convert scientific discoveries into real-world health innovation through technology transfer, industry collaboration, patents and translational impact.
Together, these dimensions capture the structural, cultural and operational factors that enable institutions to move breakthroughs beyond the lab and into real-world application.
To support and accelerate the work, UAB Senior Associate Vice President and Chief Biotechnology and Innovation Officer Kathy Nugent serves in leadership roles for both UAB affiliate Southern Research and UAB’s Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“This achievement reflects the ingenuity of UAB’s and SR’s innovators and the dedication of our technology transfer team, whose efficiency is helping translate discoveries into real-world solutions that benefit patients and communities far beyond our campus,” Nugent said.
In recent years, UAB has made key investments and expanded business incubator and accelerator space, strengthened the resources and operational capacity of the HIIE, enhanced support for faculty inventors, and expanded incentives for faculty pursuing intellectual property development and startup formation.
The HIIE is UAB’s technology transfer and commercialization office that has helped launch more than 20 UAB startups in the last five years alone. It has launched the Blazer Bridge Fund and The Blazer App Accelerator, two key programs to help inventors move ideas from concept to commercialization. The Bridge Fund provides early-stage translational funding to advance novel intellectual property from across UAB and position technologies for licensing or IP protection, and the Accelerator offers training, mentorship and hands-on support for validating software and app concepts.
In 2025, Accelerator cohort member Kristine Lokken, Ph.D., of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, received a Blazer Bridge Fund award and developed a program aimed at preventing cognitive decline. The HIIE also helped launch PreciPS, a company developing scalable, web-based tools and training to help health system teams address operational challenges. Founder Rick van Pelt, M.D. — chief clinical transformation officer at UAB Hospital — credits the HIIE with helping him build critical connections to legal counsel, product developers, accelerators and investors.
HIIE also employs a full‑time faculty liaison dedicated to deepening engagement between researchers and the technology transfer team and partnered with the UAB Heersink School of Medicine to establish an Executive-in-Residence program focused on increasing faculty-driven startups, invention disclosures and commercialization activity.
Southern Research plays a critical role in translating ideas into successful businesses by continuing to expand its new Station 41 incubator. Now home to five UAB faculty startups and many non-UAB startups, Station 41 provides affordable lab space and equipment, access to business development resources, and opportunities to network during early commercialization.
Led by Cure, the Innovation Index was developed in collaboration with a multidisciplinary group of experts across academia, industry and government, with analytical support from Deerfield Intelligence, a division of Deerfield Management Company.
The methodology integrates validated data from more than a dozen federal and commercial sources, complemented by proprietary inputs from surveys of more than 3,000 researchers and industry leaders, as well as institutional audits assessing infrastructure, technology transfer capabilities and translational programs.
“Recognition of UAB in the Cure Innovation Index reflects its leadership in translating scientific discovery into real-world impact,” said Cure CEO Seema Kumar. “While traditional measures emphasize funding, publications or patents, the Index sets a new standard by evaluating the full set of capabilities required to move innovation from concept to cure.”