A new $12 million innovation competition called “i6 Challenge” was just announced by the Department of Commerce’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and their Economic Development Administration (EDA) in partnership with NIH and the National Science Foundation (NSF). EDA will award up to $1 million to six individual teams in the U.S.
Teams will need to come up with innovative ideas that will drive technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. NIH and NSF will award up to $6 million in additional funding to NIH or NSF Small Business Innovation Research grantees associated with the winning teams.
“The i6 Challenge will help new biomedical technologies succeed and foster their entry into the marketplace,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collin, M.D., Ph.D. “NIH supports small business through both the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs.
“The i6 Challenge is exactly the type of interagency collaboration that can help advance President Obama’s innovation agenda by supporting and rewarding innovative approaches that will turn ideas into new products and businesses to help America compete in the global economy,” said Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Associate Director for Technology in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Entrepreneurs, investors, universities, foundations, and nonprofits are encouraged to participate in the i6Challenge. The deadline for applications is July 15, 2010. Letters of intent to participate are encouraged and should be sent to i6@doc.gov no later than June 15th. Go to www.eda.gov/i6 to learn more about the competition and for information on the conference call to take place at 2 pm EDT on May 17th. For other details, go to the May 4th issue of the Federal Register.
For further contacts, email Calvin Jackso at NIH at cj8e@nih.gov, Joshua Chamot at NSF at jchamot@nsf.gov, or email John Atwood at EDA at jatwood@eda.doc.gov.
