U.S. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE PENNY PRITZKER ANNOUNCES
AWARDEES OF $10 MILLION IN GRANTS TO ADVANCE INNOVATION ACROSS AMERICA
Today, U.S.
Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced the 25 awardees that will
receive $10 million under the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) 2015
Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program. The 2015 RIS program is managed
by EDA’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) and is designed to advance innovation
and capacity-building activities in regions across the country through two different competitions: the i6 Challenge and the Seed Fund
Support (SFS) Grants competition.
“As the driving force behind
the Administration’s focus on entrepreneurship, the Department of Commerce is
committed to helping set the conditions for innovators and entrepreneurs to
test new ideas, take risks, find financing and customers, and ultimately thrive,”
said Secretary Pritzker. “The Regional Innovation Strategies program is
critical to ensuring that entrepreneurs have access to the tools they need to
move their ideas and inventions from idea to market.”
“As Vice
Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I've fought for investments
in innovative research to make our economy stronger by supporting jobs today
and jobs tomorrow,” said U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) “These funds
in the federal checkbook will help turn those new ideas in the laboratories
into successful products in the marketplace, invented and manufactured right
here at home. I'll continue to fight for the innovation economy in Maryland and
across our country to keep us competitive in the global economy.”
Traveling today in Portland, Maine, U.S. Assistant
Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Jay Williams joined U.S. Senator
Angus King and U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree to formally announce these
awards, specifically an i6 investment that will help expand the Maine
Center for Entrepreneurial Development’s (MCED) Top Gun
program into the Top Gun Rural Accelerator Network (Top Gun RANE) and a Seed
Fund Support grant to support Coastal
Enterprises Inc.’s (CEI) Natural Resource Business Seed Capital Fund.
“This 2015 Regional Innovation Strategy cohort of grantees
is truly an exciting group – the diversity in programs and regional
representation proves that innovation and entrepreneurship are igniting all corners of the country,” Assistant Secretary
Williams said. “From Puerto Rico to Pittsburgh, and Seattle to Blacksburg,
these programs will reach all kinds of communities and help entrepreneurs gain
the edge they need to succeed.”
i6 Challenge
The i6 Challenge, was launched in 2010 as
part of the Startup
America Initiative, and is now in
its fifth iteration. The i6 Challenge is a national competition that makes
small, targeted, high-impact investments to support startup creation,
innovation, and help turn technology into jobs. The funding supports the
development and expansion of new and existing Proof-of-Concept and
Commercialization Centers, which help innovators fine
tune and scale their innovations to bring new products and services to the
market.
Applications were evaluated in part on the
strength of their specific outreach plans to populations and communities that
are underrepresented in innovation and entrepreneurship and on specific,
quantitative metrics to measure the effectiveness of that outreach.
The total amount of funding for the i6 Challenge under this
RIS round is $8 million.
Seed Fund Support Grants
This year’s eight Seed Fund Support grants
provide funding for technical assistance to support feasibility, planning,
formation, or launch of cluster-based seed capital funds that provide
equity-based investments in early-stage, innovation-based, startups that have
high growth potential but that often struggle to secure funding early in their
lifecycles. Projects were evaluated in part on their specific outreach
plans aimed at underrepresented communities.
The total amount
of funding for the Seed Fund Support competition under RIS is $2 million.
Grantees
under the RIS i6 Challenge include:
·
New Mexico
State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico
$368,760 for Next Gen Entrepreneurship (Next Gen)
·
Telluride
Foundation, Telluride, Colorado
$499,720 for Southwest Innovation Corridor
·
University
of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama
$500,000 for UAH Virtual Proof of Concept Center (POCC): The Growth
& Acceleration of Products (GAP) Project
·
University
of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut
$500,000 for Quiet Corner Innovation Cluster (QCIC)
·
Maine Center
for Entrepreneurial Development, Portland, Maine
$390,000 for Top Gun Rural Accelerator Network Expansion
·
Northeast
Ohio Medical University, Rootstown, Ohio
$498,282 for Accelerating Pharmaceutical Commercialization: A Rural
Proof of Concept Center for Economic Development
·
University
of Wisconsin System, Stevens Point, Wisconsin
$499,965 for a new Proof of Concept Center
·
Arkansas
State University, State University, Arkansas
o
$500,000 for East Arkansas Regional Innovation System
·
CareerSource
Broward, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
o
$499,999 for SUN i6 Challenge
·
Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University,
Blacksburg, Virginia
$499,751 for CatalyzeVT: Expanding the Innovation Ecosystem in the
Roanoke-Blacksburg Region of Virginia
·
Innovation
Alliance, Seattle, Washington
$500,000 for Clean Water Innovation Initiative (CWII)
·
University
of Hawaii System, Honolulu, Hawaii
$500,000 for XLR8UH Hawaii Innovation Ecosystem Development Project
·
Quatere, Salt Lake City, Utah
$500,000 for Quatere Cohorts Innovation Center Expansion
·
Oklahoma
Innovation Institute, Tulsa, Oklahoma
$351,400 for Tulsa Research Partners Technology Commercialization
Concentrator for Tulsa
·
BioHealth
Innovation, Inc., Rockville, Maryland
$495,000 for expansion of the Venture Commercialization Model (V-COMM)
·
Innovation
Works, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
$500,000 for a rural hardware entrepreneurship program in southwest
Pennsylvania
·
Oregon State
University, Corvallis, Oregon
o $447,231 for Oregon State
Engineered Wood Building Products Commercialization Project
Grantees
under the Seed Fund Support competition for this round of RIS include:
·
Mahoning
Valley Economic Development Corporation, Youngstown, Ohio
$250,000 for Valley Growth Ventures, LLC
·
Enterprize
Events Inc,, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico
$250,000 for the Puerto Rico IDE
Seed Fund
·
Coastal
Enterprises Inc., Wiscasset, Maine
$250,000 for the CEI Natural Resource Business Seed Capital Fund
·
Duke
University,
Durham, North Carolina
$250,000 for the Triangle Venture Alliance
·
BioAccel, Phoenix, Arizona
$250,000 for the Southwest Integrated Investment Ecosystem Development
Project
·
Global
Center for Medical Innovation, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia
$249,981 for the Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI) MedTech
Seed Fund & Accelerator Program
·
Illinois
Science and Energy Innovation Fund, Chicago, Illinois
$248,200 for the Energy Foundry Seed Investor Education and Strategic
Partner Development Project
·
Ben
Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
$250,000 for Greater Philadelphia
Impact Partners
EDA Blog Post: EDA’s Regional Innovation Strategies Program: Supporting Resources
Critical to Entrepreneurial Success
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