Florida State University has awarded more than $500,000 in seed funding to accelerate commercialization of university research with strong translational potential.
Upon completion of a competitive process with 66 letters of intent and 30 applications, six projects were awarded. They range from an AI-assisted chemical analysis platform to a digital therapy for pediatric ADHD patients.
The awards were made through IGNITE-FSU’s Seed Translational Research Project (STRP) program, supported by the National Science Foundation’s Accelerating Research Translation initiative. STRP’s focus is on actionable, short-term projects that help FSU researchers overcome immediate commercialization obstacles in under one year. This is the second round of funding the program has made available.
“Great research often struggles to attract investment or commercial interest without a prototype or demonstration of usability,” said Valerie McDevitt, associate vice president of Strategic Partnerships and Innovation. “Seed funding for these projects that is milestone driven and includes support from FSU Commercialization helps ready emerging technologies to partner with industry or for further development through a start-up.”
Round two STRP Awardees include:
- Automated Extraction of Requirements from Technical Standards Toolkit
Naqash Ali, Assistant in Research, FSU Center for Advanced Power Systems
- Biomass Lignin-Based Polymers for Capturing CO2 and Air Purification Ho Yong Chung, Associate Professor, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
- Disruptive Technology for Rapid Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli Detection; Commercialization and Industry Integration Prashant Singh, Associate Professor, FSU Anne’s College
- An Integrated Platform Supporting AI Model Development and Deployment in Machine Learning as a Service Yushun Dong, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
- Stain-to-Composition: A Web-Based Tool for Photo-Based Chemical Analysis Oliver Steinbock, Cottrel Family Professor, FSU Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Cenextra: Working Memory Training that Works for Children with ADHD Michael Kofler, Professor, FSU Department of Psychology
Since traditional research grants typically do not cover commercialization work and private investors rarely fund technologies that require heavy R&D with uncertain timelines, seed funding is often needed to bridge the gap between lab work and tangible outcomes.
One such STRP award will enable Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Oliver Steinbock’s Stain-to-Composition (S2C) technology to demonstrate scalability. S2C, a web-based tool that generates and uses a large dataset to teach a machine learning model to perform chemical analysis, reduces the need for capital-intensive large laboratory infrastructures. The STRP will help Steinbock and team deliver a fully functional prototype for real-time tap water analysis, seeding possible market transition for environmental, consumer, and healthcare uses.
With the final STRP grants awarded, FSU strengthens the ability for researchers to turn their work into societal impact.
“These awards reflect FSU’s commitment to accelerating research translation and establishing pathways to the marketplace,” said Vice President for Research Stacey Patterson, who also serves as the principal investigator of the NSF Art Award. “At the Division of Research, we are excited to see how these technologies progress over the course of the next year.”
Read more about IGNITE-FSU at https://www.research.fsu.edu/ignite.