The Ohio Third Frontier Wright Projects Program (OTFWPP) issued their FY 2011 Request for Proposals on October 20, 2010. OTFWPP’s purpose is to provide funding for capital equipment to serve a commercial purpose in the short-term and in the long term, help train and educate the current and future workforce in the state. OTFWPP funding helps support commercialization collaborations at Ohio universities and colleges, other non-profit research institutions, and at Ohio companies.
Biomedical proposals must address areas such as drug development, diagnostics and therapeutics, or medical devices. Information technology is considered an enabling technology area to supports research and commercialization in technology areas therefore, information technology is only eligible to the extent that it supports the biomedical proposal.
At the end of three years, the commercialization project included in the RFP must be mature enough to have completed demonstrations of commercial market products or processes and achieve market entry for the products and process.
To meet the commercialization requirements, the proposal must include information on achieving market entry, potential for the products, size opportunity in the market, markets that are of sufficient size, have growth potential, customer readiness, long term financing to support the commercialization, ability to compete globally, a sustainable competitive advantage, and the existence of the workforce to support the commercialization effort.
The Lead Applicant must either be an Ohio college or university or non-profit public or private research organization or public body in Ohio. Proposals must include collaborations between institutions or organizations meeting the eligibility requirements and at least one Ohio for-profit company.
OTFWPP anticipates awarding up to $21 million in grants through FY 2011. Funding of $18 million will come from the Wright Capital Fund and $3 million from the Third Frontier Research and Development Fund. Six to ten grants are to be awarded with each grant to be in the range of $1 to $3 million. Project funds requested are not to exceed $500,000.
A bidder’s conference will be held November 10, 2010, letters of intent are due November 30, 2010, and the proposal is due by January 20, 2010. To download the proposal, go to www.thirdfrontier.com/Documents/FY2011OTFWPP-RFP.pdf. The RFP is administered by the Ohio Department of Development, Technology, and Innovation Division in Columbus Ohio. For more information, call (614) 466-2480 or go to www.development.ohio.gov.
