Excerpt from the Dayton Business Journal
A research group affiliated with a Dayton-area university will receive a $750,000 grant to establish an accelerator program for medical technology startups.
Wright State Applied Research Corp. (WSARC) is one of 44 organizations from 28 states and two territories to earn grants totaling $23 million from the Economic Development Administration. The grants are made annually under the EDA's Regional Innovation Strategies program competition. The 2019 awardees also will leverage an additional $26 million in matching funds from a variety of private and public sector sources.
With the funding, which includes nearly $750,000 in federal dollars along with an $800,000 local match, WSARC will create the "Dayton MedTech Nexus Initiative." This program is meant to accelerate the timeline to funding for medical technology startups by aligning the region's healthcare specialization, defense research assets and entrepreneurial ecosystems, as well as building new medical technology commercialization pathways.
“This is great news for the region,” WSARC CEO Dennis Andersh said. “The research labs and entrepreneurs in the Dayton region are creating world-class technologies with the potential to save lives across the globe. We’re excited to work with EDA & regional partners to get these products to market.”
The project involves taking medical technologies that have been developed at Wright State and by other local organizations and turning them into prototypes that can then be commercialized with funding from investors.
“The grant will help med-tech startups get to market quicker,” said John Owen, a program manager at Wright State Research Institute (WSRI).
