Newswise — A new $12 million innovation competition, based on a partnership between the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Administration (EDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) was recently announced at the Association of University Research Parks (AURP) BioParks 2010 conference.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce John Fernandez previewed the “i6 Challenge” at BioParks 2010, a gathering of innovation and biopark leaders in Chicago.
The EDA will award up to $1 million to each of six teams around the country with the most innovative ideas to drive technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. NIH and NSF will award a total of up to $6 million in additional funding to NIH or NSF Small Business Innovation Research grantees associated with winning teams, according to an announcement released by the EDA.
“AURP is delighted that EDA Administrator Fernandez has announced a new regional innovation cluster opportunity. AURP’s tag line is ‘Creating Communities of Innovation’ and with this partnership among federal funding agencies, including NSF and NIH, the ‘i6 Challenge’ is sure to be of strong interest to these communities across the U.S.,” said AURP President Brian Darmody. “We encourage research parks and incubators to partner with their start up firms and develop innovation regional partnerships that will help the U.S. remain competitive.”
Fernandez also addressed the importance of regionalism and the role of university research, science and technology parks.
“We need to do more to drive regional collaboration,” said Fernandez. “Remaining competitive relies on the speed of which we move ideas to marketplace.”
“The idea of university-related research parks was created here in the United States and now is being perfected abroad,” said Fernandez. “I am happy to say that the Obama Administration is taking major steps in reversing this trend.”
About AURP: The Association of University Research Parks is a professional association of university related research and science parks. AURP’s mission is to foster innovation, commercialization and economic growth through university, industry and government partnerships. For more information, visit AURP’s Web site at www.aurp.net
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