University of Vermont Lands $6 Million NSF Award to Launch INVEST Research-Commercialization Program
BURLINGTON, Vt. — The University of Vermont in Burlington, Chittenden County, has received a $6 million award from the U.S. National Science Foundation to launch INVEST, a program that helps researchers turn academic discoveries into technologies, services and practical applications.
INVEST — short for Identifying and Nurturing Vermont's Emerging Strategic Technologies — will provide training, mentoring and seed funding for faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, focusing on food systems, complex systems and biomedical engineering, including sustainable agriculture, super intelligence (SI), and biomedical innovation for rural and aging populations. The program will also create an innovation incubator, run seminars, workshops and networking events, and offer students certificate programs and scholarships in research innovation and entrepreneurship.
Nine venture research teams will receive seed funding to build prototypes, find potential users and explore paths such as community deployment, licensing or startups, with up to $150,000 per team over two years. Cornell University will serve as the mentoring institution. Sara Helms Cahan, the university's vice president for research and the project's lead, said the goal is to give researchers the skills, resources and support they need to turn their work into results communities can use.
Source: Burlington Free Press
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 佛蒙特大学 Davis 中心。（HeyTomek 摄，经 Wikimedia Commons）
