The Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center has begun a new initiative for the development of new products and companies using advanced materials technologies within the energy industry. The center recently won a $500,000 grant from Pennsylvania's Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority to support the effort.
The center is providing federal matching funds with the state money using its existing Air Force Research Laboratories grant, along with matches from regional industry, to create a $1.1 million program that will continue through Dec. 31, 2010.
The center plans to use the funds to create new ideas for solving the nation's energy challenges, using advanced materials, and to create and support new researcher-industry partnerships to commercialize these new technologies.
To support the first objective, the center, in partnership with Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, has planned a workshop, ‘Advanced Materials Research for Energy Applications,’ to be held Nov. 3-4. The workshop will focus on solar, wind, storage and efficiency enhancements.
For the second objective of the program, the center will provide grants to new or existing industry-university partnerships to accelerate the commercialization of the technologies to market. These grants will come in two forms. The first will be pre-commercialization grants to university or company researchers with a commercialization sponsor. These projects will support the final development of the technology. The second grant will be for small and large companies to commercialize their technologies for specific product applications.
SOURCE: Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center
