Leveraging Strategic Resources for Funding

Opportunities

UCF Grants Day November 4, 2013

Andrea Wesser

UCF Office of Research & Commercialization

• ‘Strategic’ is a shorter term which embodies any partnership, collaboration or consultation opportunity with an outside entity that is not another academic institution

• These relationships can exist with any of the following ‘strategics’: - Fortune 1000 companies (internal R&D, business divisions, technology scouts, corporate VC arm, or operations) - Other large industry parties (engineering/product development, R&D, or operations) - Small technology businesses - Federal agencies - State and local government agencies - Research consortiums with industry partners - Non-profit organizations - Venture capitalists/angel investors and their portfolios

What is a Strategic?

• Connects you with folks who have the money for sponsored research, research centers, fellowships and acquire spin-outs

• Develops deeper relationships with federal agencies and state organizations who may also have funding opportunities

• Supports non-research business development/revenue stream

strategies for your lab and/or research center

• Develops immediate international public relations campaigns

• Network in with local and regional developing ecosystem

• Support technology, research and technology policy development

The Value of Strategic Partnerships

• Federal grant writing for university-based research only

• Federal/state grant writing by partnering with small businesses: - SBIRs/STTRs

- ARPA-E - NSF (AIR, PFI, etc.)

• Sponsored Research/Fellowships with industry and non-profit

organizations

• Pursue research centers and consortiums with these entities

• Pursue competitions hosted by these entities

Areas of Fundraising and Showcasing with Strategics

Fundraising and Showcasing with Strategics (cont.)

• Non-research revenues • Seminars/workshops • Testing/prototyping • Consulting • Demo Days

• Attend important conferences and trade shows as a keynote

speaker or panel member

• Network at professional STEM organization events and host lab tours for members

• Be an invited 3rd party validator of a company’s technology

• Be prepared and on-notice to conduct tours/talks as UCF administrators have industry guests on-campus

University of Central Florida/US Dept. of Energy/ Dept. of Commerce Economic

Development Administration and Space Florida Initiatives:

SEEKERS

INNOVATORS

Seekers are sick of

and lost with the

“vendor parade”

Innovators have a

hard time getting

in the door

SEEKERS

ALLIES Seekers meet with

unclear or poor

communicating vendors

coached by allies

Allies often do not

understand market

demands of seekers nor

proper sales channels

ALLIES

INNOVATORS

Innovators need help

in bus/investment

development

Allies need pipelines

to strong innovators

for funding

Innovation Ecosystem

Issues

• Developing an “innovation ecosystem” out of various funding pools and program elements

• MegaWatt Ventures is an “X-Prize” like competition for cleantech university spin-outs and small businesses for Southeast US (10 states) – since 2011

• $1.1M US Dept of Energy sponsored program

• The Florida Cleantech Acceleration Network supports the Florida renewable energy ecosystem – since 2013

• $3.1M EDA and US Dept of Energy sponsored program

• CAT5 Awards is similar to MegaWatt but for all tech start-ups in the Florida; Space FL funding of $150k

About the Original Programs

Innovation Concourse of the Southeast

How It Works for Strategics

ENERGY

AEROSPACE

AUTOMOTIVE

ENTERTAINMENT, MEDIA, and MOBILE APPS

MEDICAL

SUPER PERFORMING MATERIALS

ENVIRONMENT

DEFENSE

AGRICULTURE

TEXTILES and MANUFACTURING

SAFETY and MINING

IT/SOFTWARE and FINANCE

Innovators Example Listings

ENERGY DEFENSE

• POWER GENERATION • ENERGY STORAGE* • ENERGY HARVESTING • NUCLEAR • GRID MODERNIZATION • BIOMASS • BIOFUELS • BUILDING EFFICIENCY • PHOTOVOLTAICS • GEOTHERMAL/CO-GEN • OIL & GAS

• HIGH PULSE WEAPONRY • ARMAMENT • AIR VEHICLES • GROUND VEHICLES • ROBOTS/AI • WATER VEHICLES • SURVEILLANCE • INTRANET/APPS • EMERGENCY RESPONSE • PPE* • ENERGY STORAGE* • SHELTERS

Innovators Example Detailed Listing

ENERGY – GRID MODERNIZATION

Small Businesses • APECOR - http://apecor.com/ UCF Business Incubator Graduate (Ally)

Advanced Power Electronics Corporation (APECOR) carries out R&D in the area of power electronics. In partnership with the UCF, APECOR is developing high-efficiency low-voltage high-current DC/DC voltage regulator modules, hard-switching and soft-switching DC/DC converters…<read more>

• GRIDiant – http://gridiantcorp.com Advanced Grid Management is powered by GRIDfast™, the first, true real-time, nonlinear, multi-objective, optimization and resource ranking engine for grid planning…<read more>

Intellectual Property • The Combination of Linear and Adaptive Non-Linear Control for Fast Transient Response in Highly

Efficient Voltage Regulators and DC-DC Converters (UCF) • Active Transient Voltage Compensator for Improving Fast Transient Response in DC to DC Converters

(UCF)

Research Capabilities

Innovation Ecosystem by Sector Up Close

TURBINES PSM

TURBINE TECH

GA TECH

PRATT & WHITNEY

ROLLS ROYCE

MITSUBISHI

GE

AEROJET

THERMO ELECTRICS

UCF

SIEMENS

CLEMSON

SAGE

JPL

UA OF TUSCALOOSA

Seekers on Board

MISSISSIPPI

GEORGIA

LOUISIANA

FLORIDA ALABAMA

TENNESSEE

NORTH CAROLINA

SOUTH CAROLINA

KEY INDUSTRIES: Automotive (Tuscaloosa) Military Space (Huntsville) E&E Expertise: Specialty Chemicals Microgrid Combustion

KEY INDUSTRIES: Logistics Tourism Agriculture E&E Expertise: Turbines Energy Storage Water Quality HVAC Phosphate

PUERTO RICO

KEY INDUSTRIES: Space Seafood Agriculture E&E Expertise: Biomass Wastewater Hybrid Electric Vehicle

KEY INDUSTRIES: Automotive Agriculture E&E Expertise: Biomass, Thermoelectrics

KEY INDUSTRIES: Aerospace Manufacturing Financial E&E Expertise: Smart Grid Building Efficiency Air/Water Filtration (textiles)

KEY INDUSTRIES: Retail Manufacturing Food/Beverage E&E Expertise: Solar Geothermal Building Efficiency (Lighting)

KEY INDUSTRIES: Seafood Tourism Healthcare E&E Expertise: Water Quality Flyash Oil & Gas

KEY INDUSTRIES: Logistics Healthcare Paper/Lumber Entertainment (Nashville) E&E Expertise: Biomass Nuclear Wind Smart Grid

KEY INDUSTRIES: Agriculture Tourism

E&E Expertise: Waste to Energy Solar

Southeast Innovation Areas of E & E Strength

• ICSE On-Line Innovator Pipeline

• Visit with faculty one-on-one to determine best industry sponsored research and other strategic partners

• Help you connect with strategics for grant opportunities and research centers

• Brainstorm on how best to position your research lab and research scope moving forward (sharing Seeker profiles)

• Attend Innovation Concourse of Southeast major events (next up: June 3 – 4, 2013) and regional exchanges (Feb 2014) which showcase you

How We Connect You

• Work with UCF Pre-Awards group to identify grant opportunities

• Contact Pre-Awards and the Venture Accelerator www.venturelab.ucf.edu to get support for your grant proposal

• Work with the Venture Accelerator to find strategic partners • Work with Venture Accelerator on what topics are of interest to

strategics

• Check out sites like www.zyn.com for easy ways to comb through SBIR opportunities or research topics of interest to the US

• Work with the UCF Office of Tech Transfer on ways you can promote your lab through professional PR avenues like blogging, conference speaking, hosting demo days/tours/workshops, etc.

Where to Start

Andrea Wesser UCF Office of Research and Commercialization

Andrea.wesser@ucf.edu 407-882-0594

Innovation Concourse of the Southeast www.innovationconcourse.com

Venture Accelerator

www.venturelab.ucf.edu

Contact Information