Technology Commercialization & Innovation Program OVERVIEW The Technology Commercialization & Innovation Program (TCIP; formerly the Centers of Excellence Program), supports the acceleration and commercialization of promising technologies. Over the past 24 years, the program evolved from offering grants only to universities, to now awarding grants to universities and companies who license technology from a university. The end goal of TCIP is to help drive economic development and job creation in Utah. The program recently adopted a lighter, smaller, faster model, where we are able to provide smaller, more frequent funding to a wider range of technology commercialization projects at critical funding points. The application process is competitive, with multiple (up to 3) selection cycles per year. Grants of up to $40,000 are awarded on a first application and up to an additional $40,000 in a second round, for a maximum of $80,000 per applicant for a single technology.
SOLICITATION REPORT TCIP offered 2 grant award opportunities in FY2011: Round 1: TCIP received 45 applications, for a total funding request of over $1.7 million. Of these, 21 were awarded a TCIP grant — 12 licensee companies, 5 affiliate companies, 2 University of Utah professor teams and 2 Utah State University professor teams. Most of the technologies fell within in the cluster category of Manufacturing, Materials, Energy and Environmental technologies, with Life Science next and IT following. The funding total in Round 1 was approximately $900,000. Over 50% of the Round 1 grant funds have been paid out to the grant awardees. The remainder of the grant awardees are in the process of acquiring matching funds which must be obtained prior to grant disbursement. Round 2: TCIP received 42 applications for a total funding request of just under $1.7 million. Of these, 22 were awarded a TCIP grant, of which 2 were second-time applicants — 14 licensee companies, 5 affiliate companies, 2 University of Utah professor teams and 1 Utah State University professor team. Most of the technologies fell within the cluster categories of Life Science and IT, with Manufacturing, Materials, Energy and Environmental technologies following. The funding total in Round 2 was approximately $900.000. Round 2 contracting is still in process. SUMMARY With 87 grant applications totaling over $3 million in funding requests, a budget of $2.5 million and 43 grants awarded this year, TCIP is clearly filling a need in an area where little to no funding sources exist for companies who are in the very early stages of technology development and are not yet attractive to investors. Governor’s Office of Economic Development • Annual Report • www.business.utah.gov
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