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NSF names 10 inaugural NSF Regional Innovation Engines; teams span 18 states
NSF has announced 10 projects as the first cohort of Regional Innovation Engines. The 10 project teams span 18 states. Each of the 10 teams will receive $15 million for the first two years of the awards and could receive $160 million over the full ten years dependent on availability of funding and successful performance.
The 10 inaugural NSF Engines are:
- Central Florida Semiconductor Innovation Engine
- Colorado–Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine
- Great Lakes Water Innovation Engine
- Louisiana Energy Transition Engine
- North Carolina Textile Innovation and Sustainability Engine
- North Dakota Advanced Agriculture Technology Engine
- Paso del Norte Defense and Aerospace Innovation Engine
- Piedmont Triad Regenerative Medicine Engine
- Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine
- Upstate New York Energy Storage Engine
The White House statement on the awards states, “In addition to investing in the 10 NSF Regional Innovation Engines, NSF is also inviting 15 other teams to pursue NSF Regional Innovation Engine Development Awards…” From NSF’s awardee dashboard and previous announcements, six of the 15 groups were Engines finalists, six were semifinalists, and three were not classified as either. Those 15 groups are:
- Fuzehub, Inc.
- Innovation Outpost, Inc.
- Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation
- Michigan State University Foundation
- New Mexico Trade Alliance
- North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University
- Purdue Applied Research Institute, LLC
- Regents of The University of Idaho
- Tufts University
- Universities Space Research Association
- University of Chicago
- University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
- University of New Mexico
- Virginia Biotechnology Research Park
- West Virginia University Research Corporation
It is not clear what the timeline for application is for the 15 invitees.
The 15 invitees follow NSF’s Engines development awards last May to 44 teams spanning 46 U.S. states and territories. NSF awarded up to $1 million total to these awardees over two years. These awardees are required to lay the groundwork for establishing a new NSF Engine in their region for a given topic area. At the end of the NSF Engines development award period, awardees are expected to be prepared to set up an NSF Engine in the Nascent phase.
nsf engines