Researchers at West Virginia’s primarily undergraduate colleges and universities have the opportunity to create partnerships with private businesses to convert innovations into products through a new grant program offered by TechConnectWV.
The Seed Grant Program for Research and Commercial Partnering offers matching grants of up to $5,000 to faculty members who partner with the private sector to bring innovations to the marketplace. TechConnectWV’s Innovation Transfer Consortium has posted eligibility requirements and an application package for the grant program at http://techconnectwv.org/seed-grant-program/. The deadline to apply for funding is Feb. 22.
“The program was engineered to create and accelerate cooperation between the West Virginia higher education community and the private sector to turn research ideas into viable products that eventually help put people to work,” said Jack Carpenter, director of the Innovation Transfer Consortium project.
Carpenter said focus areas for the grants include: chemicals and advanced materials; medical devices/health care; biotechnology/life sciences; nanotechnology; identification technology; and energy. He explained that the seed grant program is focused on the state’s primarily undergraduate institutions rather than larger universities because of TechConnectWV’s intent to encourage business partnerships where fewer opportunities have existed.
Anne Barth, executive director of TechConnectWV, said, “West Virginia’s colleges and universities are treasure houses of innovation and ideas that can lead to job creation in each of these areas. We hope that by providing funds to help encourage these kinds of partnerships, we can create viable and robust new ways that others can follow in bringing innovations into the marketplace, where they can add to the growth of the economy.”
Carpenter said the effort will help introduce both research faculty and business representatives to the concept of collaboration for commercialization.
“The seed grant program is intended to support innovation between the higher education sector and private businesses,” he said. “The funding will assist in the commercialization of a product, innovation or technology; test the feasibility of a technology or product very close to commercialization; and help a company to complete a commercialization project that will directly help it grow.”
TechConnectWV is also offering research faculty at the state’s primarily undergraduate institutions the chance to bring their specialties to the attention of potential private sector partners through a new database of expertise. Carpenter said interested faculty can log on to http://techconnectwv.org/itc/ to make sure their areas of expertise are included on lists that will be available to potential private sector partners.
For more information about the seed grant program, contact Carpenter at jcarpenter@kickingstonesconsulting.com.
For more information about TechConnectWV’s Innovation Transfer Consortium, visit http://techconnectwv.org/innovation-transfer-consortium/.
