News Archive Item
Two IGERT teams awarded the NSF I-Corps grant
Description:
IGERT made a great showing in the inaugural class of NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps), with two out of 21 awards going to IGERT teams. NSF seeks to accelerate the development of new technologies, products, and processes that arise from fundamental research. I-Corps aims to jump start a national innovation ecosystem by combining the technological, entrepreneurial, and business know-how to bring discoveries ripe for innovation out of the university lab to market.
The Division of Graduate Education at NSF received 26 proposals from the IGERT community and forwarded seven to the Education and Human Resources Directorate for consideration. Out of the seven, four were selected by I-Corps to advance. Ultimately, two were invited to submit full proposals and both were awarded I-Corps grants.
Dr. Karen McDonald and Lucas Arzola of the CREATE-IGERT at University of California Davis have partnered with entrepreneur Dr. Vasilis Voudouris to develop SwiftVax, a faster, cheaper, and greener vaccine manufacturing process using non-transgenic tobacco plants. I-Corps support allows them to pursue development of tobacco plants as “vaccine biofactories” through the targeted use of the microbe Agrobacterium tumefaciens and plant viruses. This method aims to increase vaccine yield, lower capital and operating costs by up to 90% compared to traditional vaccine manufacturing processes, and reduce vaccine development time from months to weeks. Such improvements in vaccine cost and time to market have important implications for infectious disease outbreaks such as the H1N1 pandemic.
Dr. Daniel Schwartz and Jenny Knoth of the University of Washington Bioresource-based Energy for Sustainable Societies IGERT have teamed up with entrepreneur Jeffry Canin to scale up their “pyrolysis blanket” technology. Most forest harvesting leaves behind significant amounts of woody debris, posing forest health risks and increased fuel for forest fires. Typically, this woody biomass is piled up and burned on-site or left to slowly decompose. The pyrolysis blankets developed by the Schwartz IGERT team use controlled heating to convert woody debris to a commercial product—biochar. Biochar can be used as a greener alternative to coal or as a nutrient-rich soil additive for organic gardeners. Rather than letting the woody side products of logging go up in smoke, Schwartz’s team plans to use I-Corps funds to scale-up their pyrolysis blanket technology to create a greener, commercially-viable product.
IGERT participants interested in applying to the I-Corps program should review the solicitation (NSF 11-560) and submit a one-page project summary to igert@nsf.gov with the subject heading “I-Corps Submission.” Submissions must be received by February 15 to be considered for the I-Corps winter window, or July 15 to be considered for the summer window. The one-page summary must include the project title, IGERT award number and title, IGERT PI, institution, team information and roles, and an abstract of the proposed project and commercialization plan. Submitting teams will be notified of their status within two weeks of the deadline.
