Awards - Second Round

• Second Round Awardees (PDF)
• Partners Involved in the Second Round Awards
• Second Round Award Distribution
• Second Round Applicants (PDF)
• Second Round Proposal Focus Areas (PDF)

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Summary

These awards support development of Centers of Excellence; Science and Technology Commercialization; as well as development of regional innovation development centers at Ft. Wayne and Terre Haute. The Center of Excellence projects are focused on new technology discovery and its commercialization. These Centers develop an administrative infrastructure supporting sustained technology commercialization through broad and evolving partnerships with the Hoosier commercial sector. These Center projects support: analytical instrumentation development; applications of nanotechnology to creating new devices; applications of genomics to the understanding and control of insect biology; the biology and medical applications of tissue regeneration; biomedical imaging; advanced research in propulsion; and applications of food science to human health.

Technology Development and Commercialization project awards support: microfabrication of medical diagnostic devices; the application of advanced optical methods to bedside diagnostics; creation of a medical informatics infrastructure for more effective and integrated health care delivery; development of advanced computational methods for drug discovery; development of new sensors for leak detection; video applications involving the internet; extending the capabilities of palm-size computers; solvents for the pharmaceutical industry; advanced ceramics; and fire-retarded plastic fiber optic cable development.

These diverse high technology development efforts originate from all over the state, and involve wide-ranging academic-industry partnerships, which tightly couple technology creation with its commercialization. They capitalize on and develop important synergies within and among academic, industry, and commercial sectors. In addition, these partnerships provide channels through which private and federal funds can leverage the projects enabled by Fund awards. This group of awards is highly leveraged. Two additional dollars have been provided for every Fund dollar.

The broad geographic distribution of the awards reflects, in part, the complex distribution of the partners. For instance, the activities of the Center for Insect Genomics are supported by academic and commercial entities in South Bend, West Lafayette, Greenfield, and Indianapolis. Furthermore, the support for these projects originates not only at the State level (the Fund) but also flows in substantial amounts from the partners themselves. Current and future federal and private funds provide, or will provide, further leverage of these awards. Thus, all of the projects supported should logically be viewed as statewide. This viewpoint mirrors the Fund's emphasis on supporting technology development and commercialization activities at the academic/industry/governmental interfaces through partnerships.

While the diversity of these recommended awards defies simplistic summary, some important conclusions can nonetheless be drawn. Somewhat more than half of the awards address topics in the biological sciences. The Centers for Insect Genomics and Enhancing Foods to Protect Health promise to embed new technologies and commercialization opportunities in the important agricultural sector of our economy. The Biomedical Imaging Center and the projects involving microfabrication of a Blood Monitoring System and commercialization of a Critical Care Analyzer for bedside diagnostics all address important basic research and clinical science/diagnostics issues. Two awards involving computational drug design and development of new environmentally friendly solvents for industry will have important consequences for the Indiana pharmaceutical industry. Of course, most of the awards identified as having biological import also involve profound physical science input. Obvious examples include the Instrumentation Center of Excellence and Combinatorial Ceramics Synthesis project.

Information and Internet technologies are areas of rapid growth in Indiana. Three of the current awards involve this area: Memory Management Software on Palm-Size Computers; Entertainment Video over the Internet; and Development of a Real-Time Information Infrastructure to Enable the Transparent Hospital.

Important non-biological technology development projects supported include: development of intelligent sensors for leak detection; development of flame-retarded plastic optical fibers, which addresses a central limitation for development of cheap fibers; and rocket engine development.

The list below provides summaries of the projects, indicates the partnerships involved in the technology development activity, and provides the overall budget and direct leverage involved. In addition to direct leverage, there are related federal awards which support related aspects of these activities and, of course, anticipated future federal awards. Thus, the leverage stated must be regarded as a minimum estimate of the additional funds, which will be made available from non-State sources for the support of these research and commercialization activities.