Leveraging Strategic Resources for Funding
Opportunities
UCF Grants Day November 4, 2013
Andrea Wesser
UCF Office of Research & Commercialization
• ‘Strategic’ is a shorter term which embodies any partnership, collaboration or consultation opportunity with an outside entity that is not another academic institution
• These relationships can exist with any of the following ‘strategics’: - Fortune 1000 companies (internal R&D, business divisions, technology scouts, corporate VC arm, or operations) - Other large industry parties (engineering/product development, R&D, or operations) - Small technology businesses - Federal agencies - State and local government agencies - Research consortiums with industry partners - Non-profit organizations - Venture capitalists/angel investors and their portfolios
What is a Strategic?
• Connects you with folks who have the money for sponsored research, research centers, fellowships and acquire spin-outs
• Develops deeper relationships with federal agencies and state organizations who may also have funding opportunities
• Supports non-research business development/revenue stream
strategies for your lab and/or research center
• Develops immediate international public relations campaigns
• Network in with local and regional developing ecosystem
• Support technology, research and technology policy development
The Value of Strategic Partnerships
• Federal grant writing for university-based research only
• Federal/state grant writing by partnering with small businesses: - SBIRs/STTRs
- ARPA-E - NSF (AIR, PFI, etc.)
• Sponsored Research/Fellowships with industry and non-profit
organizations
• Pursue research centers and consortiums with these entities
• Pursue competitions hosted by these entities
Areas of Fundraising and Showcasing with Strategics
Fundraising and Showcasing with Strategics (cont.)
• Non-research revenues • Seminars/workshops • Testing/prototyping • Consulting • Demo Days
• Attend important conferences and trade shows as a keynote
speaker or panel member
• Network at professional STEM organization events and host lab tours for members
• Be an invited 3rd party validator of a company’s technology
• Be prepared and on-notice to conduct tours/talks as UCF administrators have industry guests on-campus
University of Central Florida/US Dept. of Energy/ Dept. of Commerce Economic
Development Administration and Space Florida Initiatives:
SEEKERS
INNOVATORS
Seekers are sick of
and lost with the
“vendor parade”
Innovators have a
hard time getting
in the door
SEEKERS
ALLIES Seekers meet with
unclear or poor
communicating vendors
coached by allies
Allies often do not
understand market
demands of seekers nor
proper sales channels
ALLIES
INNOVATORS
Innovators need help
in bus/investment
development
Allies need pipelines
to strong innovators
for funding
Innovation Ecosystem
Issues
• Developing an “innovation ecosystem” out of various funding pools and program elements
• MegaWatt Ventures is an “X-Prize” like competition for cleantech university spin-outs and small businesses for Southeast US (10 states) – since 2011
• $1.1M US Dept of Energy sponsored program
• The Florida Cleantech Acceleration Network supports the Florida renewable energy ecosystem – since 2013
• $3.1M EDA and US Dept of Energy sponsored program
• CAT5 Awards is similar to MegaWatt but for all tech start-ups in the Florida; Space FL funding of $150k
About the Original Programs
Innovation Concourse of the Southeast
How It Works for Strategics
ENERGY
AEROSPACE
AUTOMOTIVE
ENTERTAINMENT, MEDIA, and MOBILE APPS
MEDICAL
SUPER PERFORMING MATERIALS
ENVIRONMENT
DEFENSE
AGRICULTURE
TEXTILES and MANUFACTURING
SAFETY and MINING
IT/SOFTWARE and FINANCE
Innovators Example Listings
ENERGY DEFENSE
• POWER GENERATION • ENERGY STORAGE* • ENERGY HARVESTING • NUCLEAR • GRID MODERNIZATION • BIOMASS • BIOFUELS • BUILDING EFFICIENCY • PHOTOVOLTAICS • GEOTHERMAL/CO-GEN • OIL & GAS
• HIGH PULSE WEAPONRY • ARMAMENT • AIR VEHICLES • GROUND VEHICLES • ROBOTS/AI • WATER VEHICLES • SURVEILLANCE • INTRANET/APPS • EMERGENCY RESPONSE • PPE* • ENERGY STORAGE* • SHELTERS
Innovators Example Detailed Listing
ENERGY – GRID MODERNIZATION
Small Businesses • APECOR - http://apecor.com/ UCF Business Incubator Graduate (Ally)
Advanced Power Electronics Corporation (APECOR) carries out R&D in the area of power electronics. In partnership with the UCF, APECOR is developing high-efficiency low-voltage high-current DC/DC voltage regulator modules, hard-switching and soft-switching DC/DC converters…<read more>
• GRIDiant – http://gridiantcorp.com Advanced Grid Management is powered by GRIDfast™, the first, true real-time, nonlinear, multi-objective, optimization and resource ranking engine for grid planning…<read more>
Intellectual Property • The Combination of Linear and Adaptive Non-Linear Control for Fast Transient Response in Highly
Efficient Voltage Regulators and DC-DC Converters (UCF) • Active Transient Voltage Compensator for Improving Fast Transient Response in DC to DC Converters
(UCF)
Research Capabilities
Innovation Ecosystem by Sector Up Close
TURBINES PSM
TURBINE TECH
GA TECH
PRATT & WHITNEY
ROLLS ROYCE
MITSUBISHI
GE
AEROJET
THERMO ELECTRICS
UCF
SIEMENS
CLEMSON
SAGE
JPL
UA OF TUSCALOOSA
Seekers on Board
MISSISSIPPI
GEORGIA
LOUISIANA
FLORIDA ALABAMA
TENNESSEE
NORTH CAROLINA
SOUTH CAROLINA
KEY INDUSTRIES: Automotive (Tuscaloosa) Military Space (Huntsville) E&E Expertise: Specialty Chemicals Microgrid Combustion
KEY INDUSTRIES: Logistics Tourism Agriculture E&E Expertise: Turbines Energy Storage Water Quality HVAC Phosphate
PUERTO RICO
KEY INDUSTRIES: Space Seafood Agriculture E&E Expertise: Biomass Wastewater Hybrid Electric Vehicle
KEY INDUSTRIES: Automotive Agriculture E&E Expertise: Biomass, Thermoelectrics
KEY INDUSTRIES: Aerospace Manufacturing Financial E&E Expertise: Smart Grid Building Efficiency Air/Water Filtration (textiles)
KEY INDUSTRIES: Retail Manufacturing Food/Beverage E&E Expertise: Solar Geothermal Building Efficiency (Lighting)
KEY INDUSTRIES: Seafood Tourism Healthcare E&E Expertise: Water Quality Flyash Oil & Gas
KEY INDUSTRIES: Logistics Healthcare Paper/Lumber Entertainment (Nashville) E&E Expertise: Biomass Nuclear Wind Smart Grid
KEY INDUSTRIES: Agriculture Tourism
E&E Expertise: Waste to Energy Solar
Southeast Innovation Areas of E & E Strength
• ICSE On-Line Innovator Pipeline
• Visit with faculty one-on-one to determine best industry sponsored research and other strategic partners
• Help you connect with strategics for grant opportunities and research centers
• Brainstorm on how best to position your research lab and research scope moving forward (sharing Seeker profiles)
• Attend Innovation Concourse of Southeast major events (next up: June 3 – 4, 2013) and regional exchanges (Feb 2014) which showcase you
How We Connect You
• Work with UCF Pre-Awards group to identify grant opportunities
• Contact Pre-Awards and the Venture Accelerator www.venturelab.ucf.edu to get support for your grant proposal
• Work with the Venture Accelerator to find strategic partners • Work with Venture Accelerator on what topics are of interest to
strategics
• Check out sites like www.zyn.com for easy ways to comb through SBIR opportunities or research topics of interest to the US
• Work with the UCF Office of Tech Transfer on ways you can promote your lab through professional PR avenues like blogging, conference speaking, hosting demo days/tours/workshops, etc.
Where to Start
Andrea Wesser UCF Office of Research and Commercialization
[email protected] 407-882-0594
Innovation Concourse of the Southeast www.innovationconcourse.com
Venture Accelerator
www.venturelab.ucf.edu
Contact Information