August 17, 2023
Pathway to Commercialization Awards announced
The Office of the Vice President for Research and K-State Innovation Partners announce the Pathway to Commercialization, or P2C, Grant Program Awards.
Successful applications support early-stage research on technologies that have definable or demonstrated potential commercial impact and for which identification, selection and investment by the Office of the Vice President for Research and engagement with Innovation Partners will help set the research on a development path that can garner additional grant funding and could eventually yield disclosures of associated commercially viable intellectual property. Up to $200,000 will be distributed through this program in this inaugural year.
A total of 15 highly competitive proposals were submitted and four were selected for funding:
- Shih-kang "Scott" Fan, mechanical and nuclear engineering: "Liquid Partitioning for rapid digital polymerase chain reaction testing."
- Laura Miller, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology: "A new method of producing broadly protective PRRSV vaccines."
- Lihua Wang, anatomy and physiology: "Development of long-acting and low-immunogenicity vaccine for ASF control and prevention."
- Mark Weiss, anatomy and physiology: "Engineered extracellular vesicles (EVs) as targeted drug therapies."
"We're thrilled to see the Pathway to Commercialization Grant Program come to life and be used as a tangible resource to support our K-State faculty," said Rebecca Robinson, CEO and president of K-State Innovation Partners. "This program will provide an avenue for funding that hasn't been available in the past, allowing researchers to advance their innovations."
A primary tenet of K-State's land-grant mission is developing and delivering technological innovation to the marketplace to enhance the well-being and prosperity of global constituents. Pathway to Commercialization is a competitive grant program intended to help faculty inventors take the first step in advancing concepts or research that have not yet yielded a technology disclosure and which are currently purely conceptual in nature or have not yet advanced to the point of garnering other state, federal or industry grant funding. This inaugural program was launched to all K-State faculty on April 17.
"Research impact is measured in many ways, from improving quality of life and ensuring a sustainable future to creating new jobs and launching new companies," said David Rosowsky, vice president for research. "The P2C program provides faculty with funding and other support services to start them on their way to bringing their innovations to market through licensing, commercialization, early-stage investment and startup launch. P2C is the 'on-ramp' to our larger Investment Continuum for K-State researchers."
More information regarding the program can be found on the Office of the Vice President for Research website.