Innovation

Innovation Highlights

Innovation is shaping Camden’s future and ideas are pushed forward through collaboration. From groundbreaking research to tech startups and creative entrepreneurs, new ideas are shaping an innovation eco-system that provides opportunities for all.

The city fosters a “cradle to career” ecosystem by utilizing both new and proven strategies to create partnerships among businesses, healthcare centers, and educational institutions. These partnerships provide students with opportunities to explore STEM curriculum, build skills, and foster excitement for careers in science, technology, engineering, math and other fields. Apprenticeship and internships guide youngsters from the classroom to hands-on-experience and ultimately to viable, lifelong careers. New Business incubators, accelerators, and co-working spaces across the city establish a network of start-up and small businesses that has quickly put Camden on the map as a center for innovation.

Collaborating with Camden’s Institutes of Higher Education

Innovation starts young. Camden now provides STEM and STEAM education at every level of learning through partnerships with business and Camden’s most esteemed higher-ed institutions. Programs at our elementary schools, high schools, Rutgers University-Camden and Rowan University are getting children interested in arts, tech and sciences young. Community programs like Hopeworks ‘N Camden and The Camden Dream Center offer specific career programs with measurable outcomes across key "touch points" to ensure positive social impact in education, workforce training, mentoring, and health and well-being of students. Partnerships with private sector programs bring real-life experience to students.

Innovation-Startup Support

Sixers Innovation Lab Crafted by Kimball

The Philadelphia 76ers solidified their roots in Camden with the establishment of the Sixers Innovation Lab Crafted by Kimball. The 10,000-square foot facility includes space for approximately six startup companies, at varying stages of development. Announcement of the first participant, Monster Roster, came last fall. Monster Roster created a daily fantasy sports lineup recommender application that combines a unique process and powerful algorithm to help fantasy sports users build superior lineups.
The Sixers Innovation Lab Crafted by Kimball focuses on rapidly growing, early-stage consumer space companies like Monster Roster, and provides speed and flexibility, individualized, industry-leading consulting, and the opportunity for direct investment to participants. Selected companies receive office space in the Innovation Lab furnished by Kimball Office; access to industry experts, executives and financiers; third-party branding, marketing and legal services; free meals and housing in the Philadelphia-area; and the opportunity to pitch industry-leading investors and venture capital firms. Innovation Lab Advisors include The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, StubHub, DraftKings, Rothman Institute, First Round Capital, Maven Creative, and more. Applications are rolling for start-up companies and driven entrepreneurs that affect the crossroads of sports and consumer products

Campbell’s Soup Incubator

Campbell Soup committed significant funds to venture funding and new ideas, announcing this year that it will allocate $125 million toward food industry projects. The new venture fund, Acre Venture Partners, is another commitment from one of Camden’s longest-established businesses, and will provide funds for creative food entrepreneurs to develop new growth opportunities in the fields of food, well-being, and technology. Campbell’s supports innovation, and helps to earmark Camden as a center where new projects, businesses, and ideas come to life.

Eds and Meds

Coriell Institute for Medical Research

The Coriell Institute for Medical Research continues to play a key role in the growth of our 'health sciences' corridor. Coriell has been a leader in medical innovation in Camden since 1953. An independent, non-profit research center dedicated to the study of the human genome, Coriell is pioneering programs in the fields of personalized medicine, cell biology, cytogenetics, genotyping, and biobanking. As Coriell’s research translates into advances in human health, the city further establishes itself as a center of medical innovation.

MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper

The MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper provides world-renowned cancer care, and is a major contributor to innovation in Camden. Opened in 2013, the state-of-the-art, $100-million, 103,050 square-foot, comprehensive cancer center is a significant contribution to the growing and vital eds-and-meds hub of Camden.
Clinical trials involving people that help investigators find new ways to prevent, detect, diagnose or treat cancer and other diseases provide access to treatment options that may not be available elsewhere. All of today’s successful treatments for cancer are based on clinical trial results. Through affiliation with the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and partnership with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the physicians, nurses and other cancer specialists work together to bring the most innovative clinical trials to patients.
Camden institutions conduct research that creates far reaching and lifesaving effects. Scientists and researchers push the boundaries of innovation right here in Camden. Their work is putting Camden on the map as a true center of science, learning, and medical and scientific breakthroughs.

Rowan University

At Rowan, research is not just an integral part of the curriculum, it is a vital part of the community and the economy. The Office of Research at Rowan supports faculty, staff and students by cultivating scholarship and research, encouraging research in emerging areas, and promoting interdisciplinary partnerships to advance basic knowledge and practical solutions to industry and government problems. Research at Rowan focuses on the following four areas of core competency: Computation and Information, Health Sciences and Bio Tech, Infrastructure and Materials, and Sustainability and Community.  

Rutgers University-Camden

Nationally known and respected, Rutgers–Camden faculty receive competitive research grants that recognize the profound value of their work. The faculty brings its findings and expertise into their classrooms and the community and contributes to progress in business enterprise, technology innovation, education outreach, and scientific advances. With each success, they define the next challenge to meet and the newest frontier to cross.

A model for collaborative research

Researchers from Rutgers University–Camden and Rowan University are collaborating on an interdisciplinary project to accelerate the fight against diabetes and use untapped resources to improve treatment and perhaps even cure the disease.

Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers

Using data driven, human-centered practices, the Camden Coalition of Health Care Providers is a non-profit community organization that tests healthcare delivery models to improve patient outcomes and reduce the cost of their care. With more than a decade of experience working with vulnerable populations in the city, it shares data and program success stories with other communities to improve state and national healthcare policies.