In The News
EDGE Policy Board approves 13 of 63
applications for second step in funding process
EDGE Policy Board members Tuesday approved 13 pre-proposal applications from a field of 63, in the latest round of Oklahoma’s economic development programs. This week’s step is part of an annual process from an endowment that backers hope eventually to reach $1 billion.
EDGE, or Economic Development Generating Excellence, has approximately $6.2 million for this year’s round of funding, according to Paul Risser, Ph.D., Executive Director of the EDGE Policy Board.
The 13 applicants are being asked to submit full proposals that will be due September 1, 2011. Tuesday’s approved pre-proposals include projects in agriculture, aerospace, biotechnology, energy, information technology/telecommunications, and nanotechnology, with many projects overlapping into multiple categories.
“The EDGE program investments are paying off in positive ways, by creating both new jobs and companies. After spending $7.4 million in the first one and a half years of investments, EDGE has already created 266 jobs, 6 new companies, and leveraged $18.3 million in grants and funds,” said Risser. “And, these are the kinds of technologies and businesses that diversify Oklahoma’s economy.”
The size of awards will be determined by the EDGE Policy Board, chaired by Gary W. Derrick and composed of Thomas Kupiec Ph.D., Ken Levit, Gregory McKenzie, Bond Payne, Stephen Prescott, and David E. Rainbolt.
The EDGE Endowment Fund is managed by a legislatively-mandated Board of Investors that certifies the amount of funds available each year to the EDGE Policy Board, which in turn, determines how the money will be allocated.
The following principal investigators have been invited to submit full proposals:
Agriculture
Jon Biermacher – The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation
Commercialization of Poultry Waste Processing Technology for Sustainable Agriculture and Renewable Energy
Steve Trost - Strategic Solutions International, LLC
Advancement and Commercialization of Wireless Cattle-Health Biosensors
Aerospace
Chris Ridgard- Advanced Composites Group, Inc
Out of Autoclave Composite Structures
Biotechnology
David Albert –Alivecor
Development and launch of a Smartphone-enabled electrocardiogram (ECG) device
Richard Harty - Altheus Therapeutics, Inc
Innovations in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
James Long - VADovations, Inc
Development of a Miniature Blood Pump
Richard Kopke -Otologic Pharmaceutics
Commercial Development of a Therapy of a Therapy for the Prevention and Treatment of Acute Noise Induce Hearing Loss
Paul DeAngelis -Heparinex, LLC
OK Glyco-manufacturing Center: EDGE 2.0 – Process Development of Sugar Therapeutics
Scott Rollins -Selexys Pharmaceuticals Corporation
Advancement of a Novel Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease
John Quinn and Tom Jobe -Icx Nomadics
Advanced Biosensor Platform
Energy
Luis Gomez and Shoubo Wang - Multiphase Systems Integration, LLC
Commercialization and Manufacturing of Multiphase Advanced Novel Devices for Economic Revitalization (CoMMANDER)
Information Technology/ Telecommunications
Max Doleh - Sigma Blood Systems, LLC
Development of Integrated Process Management Software for Blood Centers and Cell Therapy
Nanotechnology
Yongqiang Tan -SouthWest Nano Technologies, Inc
The Future of Semiconductor Materials – Oklahoma Taking the Lead in Carbon Electronics
6 Innovative Ideas from Across Oklahoma
Awarded EDGE Funding
Research projects to help get new technology to market
OKLAHOMA CITY– Six Oklahoma researchers and technology-based businesses were awarded funding from Economic Development Generating Excellence (EDGE) through the Innovative Ideas Program (IIP). The IIP was launched by EDGE in 2010 to support highly-innovative, early-stage ideas for one year at a maximum level of $25,000 each.
IIP provides assistance to companies or individuals to develop specific technologies to a stage they can be seriously considered for potential commercialization. The six awards this year were selected on a competitive basis from 35 applications.
“There are many amazing and clever ideas among these applications,” said Paul Risser, executive director of the EDGE Policy Board. “Oklahoma obviously has a large number of very creative people with good technology ideas for growing our businesses. The Policy Board really struggled to limit the number of awards to only six when there were so many other enticing opportunities.”
The 2011 IIP award recipients were decided at the July meeting of the EDGE Policy Board which is chaired by Gary W. Derrick and consists of Thomas Kupiec Ph.D., Ken Levit, Gregory McKenzie, Bond Payne, Stephen Prescott, M.D. and David Rainbolt. Recipients of the 2011 IIP awards include:
CleanNG, LLC, Stillwater (Alex Diamond)
Composite-based Natural Gas Fuel Storage System
Test and commercialize a high-pressure gas storage tank for natural gas, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrous oxide
Next-Gen Wind, LLC, Oklahoma City(Sam John)
360 Degree Rotational Platform for New Ground Based Super Turbine
Improve the wind collector infrastructure for a novel ground-based wind energy super turbine
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater (Robert Taylor)
Internal Cylinder Combustion Pressure Sensor
Develop a real-time internal cylinder combustion pressure sensor for spark plugs to optimize engine performance
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater (Allen Apblett)
Radioactive Strontium Removal from Milk
Develop a nano-particulate calcium tungstate reagent that removes strontium ions from milk
CRISALIS, LLC, Oklahoma City (Kenaz Thomas)
Clinical Biomarker Data Management
Expand web-based software for identification of clinical biomarkers beyond lupus to other multi-factorial diseases
University of Oklahoma, Norman (Jeff Moore)
Software Business Accelerator for Startup Companies
Commercialize software applications for attaching audio messages to locations and an interactive social studying platform
Oklahoma’s EDGE program also makes larger awards to a small number of businesses and research organizations each year. These awards are for technologies that are much closer to commercialization and the creation of businesses and jobs. Awards will be made in November.
Established in 2004, the mission of EDGE is to bolster Oklahoma’s long-term economic growth by investing the annual earnings from the $170 million EDGE endowment into the state’s knowledge infrastructure. All EDGE fund investments are directed toward Oklahoma-based projects that have the potential to expand the number of researchers, technicians, support services and related activity within the state; increase the formation and growth of advanced technology companies; leverage additional funding through federal research grants or private investment; and improve the health and quality of life for Oklahoma. After only two years of distributions, EDGE has helped to create 266 jobs, attract $18.3 million in leveraged grants and helped give six new science and technology companies a start. Established in 2010, the EDGE Innovative Ideas Program is focused on supporting early-stage ideas in which a small amount of funding might produce new technologies that have the potential to be commercialized.
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