A Purdue Research Foundation fund designed to support Purdue University faculty and staff innovators awarded more than $200,000 this spring.
The Trask Innovation Fund assists faculty and staff innovations with which the Office of Technology Commercialization is working. The fund seeks to support short-term projects with the potential to reach markets and consumers with products “that will enhance commercial value of Purdue University intellectual property assets.”
“Faculty, staff and students and their dedication to improving the world are at the center of Purdue’s environment of innovation,” said Dan Hasler, president of Purdue Research Foundation and chief entrepreneurial officer at the university. “The researchers who earned Trask Innovation Fund awards are developing work that represents just a fraction of the life-changing ideas from Purdue that could lead to longer, healthier, happier and more productive lives.”
Trask projects receive up to $50,000 for six months. If projects receive royalty income, they have to repay the funds in full. Awards not used at the end of six months have to be returned. Purdue has roughly 500 technologies available for licensing through the Office of Technology Commercialization.
Corey Neu, assistant professor in the College of Engineering, was one of Trask’s top earners during the spring funding cycle. The awards were announced July 24.
Neu received $50,000 for his “Critical Advancement to a New AFM/NMR Instrument.” Once developed, it could help researchers understand cell movement at a singular level, as well as see certain physical and chemical properties, according to Purdue.
Neu said the funds, which can support research assistant and graduate student salaries, fee remits and supplies, would help him further develop his research findings into reality.
“We will be able to build a new kind of microscope system and generate data using the system that is essential to help commercialize the technology,” Neu said.
