Updated at 1:01 p.m.
PROVIDENCE – Four more companies were awarded $193,668 in innovation grants by the R.I. Commerce Corp., Gov. Gina M. Raimondo announced on Tuesday.
According to Commerce RI, Innovation Vouchers may be used for “support toward commercializing a new product, process or service; access to scientific, engineering and design expertise that fits an innovation need; technological development and exploration to make an innovation come to life; and/or scale-to-market development of an innovative idea.”
Each company in this round received between $40,000 and $50,000, which is the maximum provided by the innovation grant program to any single company.
“Our innovation grants give startups the spark they need to turn their ideas into businesses,” Raimondo said in a press release. “Our state is on the move.”
The innovation grants allow eligible Rhode Island enterprises with fewer than 500 employees to fund research and development assistance from a Rhode Island university, research center or medical center on a specific project.
The following companies have received Innovation Vouchers in this round of grants:
- EpiVax Inc. of Providence will receive $50,000 to partner with Rhode Island Hospital to accelerate development of a computational pipeline for personalized cancer vaccine design.
- Rite Solutions Inc. of Middletown will receive $50,000 to partner with the University of Rhode Island to work on developing the capability of a system to learn to predict equipment failures. Rite Solutions is designing the technology specifically for use within a submarine combat system network.
- Tech Against Assault PBC of Providence will receive $49,800 to work with Cara Lupino at the R.I. Department of Health to collect data to validate a new diagnostic device for collection of forensic evidence of sexual assault. The device also has the potential capacity of detecting the presence of alcohol, drugs, HIV, STI/STD and hazardous chemicals.
- Full Measure LLC of Bristol will receive $43,868 to partner with Roger Williams University to continue its evaluations of applications of the company’s FMCal, a liquid calcium blend, in the field of shellfish aquaculture and shellfish management.
“We are pleased to support the small, innovative businesses here in Rhode Island that are undertaking game-changing discoveries, creating new product lines and growing their companies,” Secretary of Commerce Stefan Pryor said in the release. “Given these innovation vouchers, small businesses can access the research and development capacity that is often key to their continued and increased success.”
This is the sixth round of Innovation Vouchers offered by Raimondo and Commerce RI in partnership with the General Assembly since the grant program was launched in 2015. So far, 36 companies have benefited from the program.
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor.
