LSU is adding another $2 million into the LSU Leveraging Innovation for Technology Transfer, or LIFT2 fund, which provides grants to faculty members on a competitive basis twice a year, to validate the market potential of their inventions. The LSU Board of Supervisors approved the measure on Friday.
“LSU faculty conduct research that has important impact on people’s lives,” LSU President and Chancellor F. King Alexander said in a statement. “With the launch of the LIFT2 Fund and now the extended commitment to transfer research innovations into marketplace, LSU continues to demonstrate that our research can enhance the lives of people in Louisiana and the nation.”
The technology transfer fund will provide a bridge over the gap between basic research and commercialization, by supporting projects through additional experiments or prototyping.
In the first round of funding, the program drew 47 applicants and 15 awards were granted, totaling more than $500,000 in support of activities to prove concept and move the invention closer to a license with a commercial partner.
The round two is currently underway and the winners will be announced in January.
In October, the Research Park Corporation launched a $250,000 program that would help those applicants who did not receive funding but had promising projects called the LSU Re- LIFT2 program.
via LSU doubles investment in tech transfer for faculty projects | NOLA.com.
