EDGE Policy Board approves 14 of 65
applications for second step in funding process
EDGE Policy Board members Wednesday approved 14 pre-proposal applications from a field of 65, representing the second round in the funding process for the latest of Oklahoma’s economic development programs. This week’s step is part of an annual process from an endowment that backers hope eventually to reach $1 billion.
EDGE, or Economic Development Generating Excellence, has approximately $7.5 million for its second round of funding, according to Paul Risser, Ph.D., Executive Director of the EDGE Policy Board.
The 14 applicants are being asked to submit full proposals which will be due in mid September. Wednesday’s approved proposals include projects in agriculture, aerospace, biotechnology, information technology/telecommunications, sensors, weather science and energy with many projects overlapping into multiple categories.
“Members of the EDGE Policy Board were gratified with the very high quality of the proposals, including many that were not included in the 14 approved applications,” said Risser. “With this second round of funding, we are making progress, however, we cannot overlook the need to advance the EDGE Endowment Fund to its full $1 billion. At that level, we will be able to support many more top quality projects that were left on the table. Those left on the table obviously cannot be put to work, creating businesses and jobs in Oklahoma.”
Risser added, “The 65 pre-proposals clearly signal there is great potential in Oklahoma for technology-based innovation and the EDGE Fund has now demonstrated the capacity to facilitate moving this innovation toward high-tech business opportunities.”
The size of awards will be determined by the EDGE Policy Board which is chaired by H.E. “Gene” Rainbolt and consists of Samuel Combs III, Gary W. Derrick, Thomas Kupiec Ph.D., Ken Levit, Gregory McKenzie and Bond Payne.
The EDGE Endowment Fund is managed by a legislatively-mandated Board of Investors which certifies the amount of funds available each year to the EDGE Policy Board, which in turn, determines how the money will be allocated.
The following principal investigators have been invited to submit full proposals:
Agriculture
• Steve Trost (Strategic Solutions International, LLC) – Cattle Health Research Alliance: Integrating Development, Use, and Validation of Advance Biosensors
Aerospace
• Alfred Stritz (The University of Oklahoma) - Research, Development, Testing, and Production of Modular Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (M-UAVs), including Turnkey Modular Unmanned Aircraft Systems (M-UASs), based on product platform and product Family Concepts.
• Ken Viera (UML) - Oklahoma Flight Innovation, Research and Testing-Unmanned Aerial Systems (OKFIRST-UAS)
Biotechnology
• Wayne Drevets (LIBR- Laureate Institute for Brain Research) – Laureate Brain Research Consortium: Commercialization of Novel Methods for Diagnosis Treatment and Prevention of Neuropsychiatric Disorders
• Robert Floyd (Otologic Pharmaceutics) - Preclinical investigation of HPN-07 and NAC for the prevention and treatment of acute noise induced hearing loss.
• John Harley/ Kenneth Kaufman (Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation) - JKA Genomics: GWAS to GENE, combining many genomes for rapid genotyping.
• Richard Harty (Altheus Therapeutics, Inc) - Therapeutic and Diagnostic Innovations in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• Scott Rollins (Selexys Pharmaceuticals Corporation) - Oklahoma Drug Development Consortium (ODDC)
Energy
• Jeffrey Harwell (University of Oklahoma) - Boosting Oklahoma Oil Production with Next Generation Surfactant Technology
• Kenneth Oglesby (Impact Technologies) - Application of an Innovative Drilling System for Optimized Ground Source Heat Pump Installations
Information Technology/ Telecommunications
• David Kendrick (The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center) - Greater Tulsa Health Access Network (Greater THAN)
• Gerard Newman (NewMan Technologies, Inc) - The EDGE in Display Technology
Sensor Technology
• Nick Materer (Oklahoma State University) – Commercialization of Passive Wireless Corrosion Sensors
• Terry Golding (Amethyst Research Inc) - Nano-Engineered Infrared Sensors
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