Research Team: Local Economic Impact of Cal Innovation & Entrepreneurship Programs

The Berkeley Startup Cluster is an existing partnership between the City of Berkeley, UC Berkeley, the Berkeley Lab, and local business organizations like the Berkeley Chamber and Downtown Berkeley Association with a mission to make the city “a vibrant, accessible and equitable place for startups to launch and grow”.

Currently, the City of Berkeley is home to more than 400 innovation companies, of which the vast majority (more than 80%) are early-stage ventures. Many are supported by (or connected to) UC Berkeley’s innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) programs, such as SkyDeck, Bakar Labs, the Energy & Bioscience Institute, and several at Haas. For the last two years, Pitchbook has ranked UC Berkeley as the number one university producing venture-backed startups, but no analysis has been undertaken to capture how the university’s global I&E leadership translates into positive economic and social outcomes for Berkeley, CA, and surrounding communities.

For the fall 2025 semester, IBI and the Berkeley Startup Cluster are working with UC Berkeley students interested in evaluating the economic impact of Cal’s I&E programs and developing impact assessment methodologies that can be updated annually, with a special focus on Berkeley, the Bay Area and the State of CA.

The research team will work with campuswide I&E programs and the City of Berkeley Office of Economic Development to capture metrics like:

  • Jobs created (FTEs, part-time employees, and interns)
  • Square footage of commercial real estate (lab and/or office) leased
  • Investment capital raised
  • Federal, state and local grants (in the past year)
  • Revenue generated
  • Contracts signed or purchases made with local vendors (e.g. for construction, team off-sites, meals, or employee gifts)
  • Business license taxes paid
  • Time, money, or expertise donated to Berkeley nonprofit and educational orgs or other Bay Area community organizations
  • IP licenses taken from the university
  • Zip Code

The resulting analysis will help the city, university, I&E program leaders, and other local governments and economic development organizations (e.g. Chambers of Commerce, East Bay Economic Development Alliance, Bay Area Council, etc.) better understand how UCB I&E programs translate into real world community impact, resulting in new policy advocacy and marketing opportunities. Additionally, the economic impact assessment methodology should be crafted for replication annually so the city and university can track how the campus’ impact on the community grows over time and identify other longitudinal trends.

Next: Faculty Innovation Grants