US Government announces innovation grants

Penny Pritzker, the US Secretary of Commerce, has announced the first 26 grant recipients of the 2014 Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) programme.

The grants are split into three different types: i6 Challenge grants, Cluster Grants for Seed Capital Funds, and science and research park development grants.

The i6 grants, launched in 2010, is a national competition aimed at improving commercialisation and innovation programmes. Now rolled into RIS, i6 will expand its beyond proof-of-concept, and include later-stage commercialisation. I6 now has just under $8m in funding.

The cluster grants look to provide early-stage funding to startups and spin-outs in areas outside of more recognised startup areas such as Silicon Valley and Boston. In order to do this, funding from cluster grants will be used to establish proof-of-concept and seed funds.

One institution which has benefitted from both is University of Central Florida (UCF). Pritzker visited the university campus to unveil grants of $500,000 from i6 and $250,000 from RIS with the goal of eventually establishing a $5m seed funding pot. UCF is typical of institutions which operate outside of recognised startup hubs where an institution finds itself with high levels of innovation but a poor ecosystem in which to develop it in. The main goal of RIS is to correct this by providing the resources a university like UCF needs to start getting its research out into the wider world.

UCF will now be working much closer with nearby incubator Starter Studio, supported by RIS funding, and is forming a new network to share space, resources, and ideas.

Kirstie Chadwick, executive director at Starter Studios, said: “I’m ecstatic, this is great for the whole startup ecosystem here. UCF and Starter Studio have been working together, but we are officially married now.”

The full list of i6 grantees are:

Albany Medical College

$399,585 for the Biomedical Acceleration and Commercialisation Centre at Albany Medical College

BioAccel, Arizona

$499,764 for the Southwest Proof of Concept Commercialisation Centre

BioSTL, St. Louis

$500,000 for Advancing regional prosperity in St. Louis by accelerating the transition of bioscience innovation

City and County of San Francisco

$474,453 for Startup in Residence

Cornell University

$500,000 for The Southern Tier Innovation Hot Spot

University of Missouri

$500,000 for the Digital Sandbox KC: Expanding Kansas City’s Proof-of-Concept Centre

Georgia Tech Research Corporation

$500,000 to Provide education, support and programs to develop the entrepreneurial community in Georgia

Louisiana Tech University

$499,959 for the I-20 Corridor Maker Space Innovation Network

Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO)

$499,822 for the mdSTEPP Program

Montana Economic Revitalization and Development Institute

$148,600 for the Manufacturing Consortium of Montana Mansfield Prototyping Centre

New Orleans BioInnovation Centre

$500,000 for the Louisiana Life Sciences Technology Commercialisation Centre

Ohio Energy and Advanced Manufacturing Centre

$449,950 for the Development of High Strain Rate Metal Forming Commercialisation Centre

Pennsylvania State University’s University Park

$500,000 for TechCelerator: Catalyzing a Regional Innovation Strategy to Accelerate New Company Formations through Technology Commercialisation

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

$499,826 for Technology Commercialisation Carolina (TCC)

University of Alaska Fairbanks

$499,064 for the Alaska Centre for Microgrid Technologies Commercialisation

University of Central Florida

$500,000 for the Maker Spaces I-Corps Proof of Concept Centre

University of South Florida

$500,000 for the FirstWaVE Venture Centre Program Expansion

Grantees under the Cluster Grant for Seed Capital Funds awards include:

Albany Medical College

$124,910 for the Biomedical Acceleration & Commercialisation Centre at Albany Medical College (BACC) SEED Fund

Milwaukee Water Council

$71,625 for the Wisconsin Water Cluster Seed Capital Fund Grant

Clean Energy Trust

$250,000 for the Clean Energy Prize Fund

Greater Phoenix Economic Council

$221,467 for the Greater Phoenix Seed Fund Feasibility Study

Quatere, Salt Lake City

$250,000 for the creation and implementation of Next Generation Early Stage Umbrella Fund

Regional Development Corporation, Espanola, New Mexico

$248,946 for the Venture Acceleration Fund Enhancement Project NM

Technology 2020, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

$250,000 for TennesSeed

University of Central Florida

$249,933 for the StarterCorps Seed Fund

University of North Dakota

$250,000 for the Cluster Grants for Seed Funds in North Dakota