Ideas to Product development grant program has $200K for local projects
The Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust announced a new funding opportunity through its Technology Transfer Accelerator Hub program, aimed at supporting pilot projects to advance life science innovations by quickly and clearly demonstrating whether a technology or product is worthy of moving through the commercialization process.
For this first year a total of $200,000 is available to support between four and seven projects, with grants of $25,000 to $40,000 each.
The “Ideas to Products” program is an effort of the Science Trust’s NIH-funded partnership with the Southeast Xlerator Network. The call opened Nov. 11, 2019 and pre-applications are due Nov. 20, 2019.
“This is not a traditional grant program. Ideas to Products (I2P) Development Grant is product focused and requires business-case project management,” said David Gulley, director of The Science Trust’s Technology Transfer Office.
“The goal of this program is to identify and push forward those ideas that have the potential to improve patient care or enhance human health coming from companies that can become future NIH SBIR/STTR applicants. We are very excited to lead this initiative in Puerto Rico,” said Gulley.
The Science Trust is the state lead of this initiative along with site leads from University of Puerto Rico campuses, Ponce Health Sciences University, the Ana G. Méndez University System, and the Universidad Central del Caribe.
All types of life science products are eligible including, but not limited to, diagnostics, medical devices, therapeutics, preventative medicine, clinical decision support tools, digital health products, AI support tools for imaging, and other clinical applications.
Applications should involve ideas with intellectual property that originates from participating academic institutions in Puerto Rico, the Science Trust said.
Interested parties can send inquiries to [email protected]. Pre-applications are available from the Science Trust’s Technology Transfer Office. Final invited proposals will be due Jan. 15, 2020, the Science Trust said.
