The DRIVEN Accelerator Hub is a National Institutes of Health-funded collaboration between top research institutions in the Northeast, including the University of Delaware. It is one of four accelerator hubs across the country designed to provide entrepreneurial educational opportunities and experiences for innovators, and to develop and implement a structural plan to support medical entrepreneurship.

The DRIVEN Accelerator Hub has announced three new funding programs:

The DRIVEN Partnership Program will include a GAP assessment, technology level readiness (TRL) assignment, formation of an action plan, connection of the partners with all DRIVEN contacts and resources and funds for key enabling activities.

The DRIVEN Acceleration Fund ($50,000/award hard cap) is for early stage companies participating in the DRIVEN Partnership Program (so-called DRIVEN Companies, sourced from Northeastern IDeA states) to accomplish strategic goals, undertake key value-driving experiments, or otherwise increase their risk-adjusted expectation of quality-adjusted life year (QALY) creation. This fund augments the already-successful DRIVEN Partnership Program.

The DRIVEN Ignition Fund ($25,000/award hard cap) is for innovations or discoveries that need additional experimentation before company formation or out-licensing is warranted. Ignition Fund awardees will not participate in the DRIVEN Partnership Program as the Ignition Fund is specifically for the advancement of pre-company formation discoveries. This fund expands DRIVEN’s ability to engage with its smaller partners, and with earlier-stage academic innovation.

The deadline for applications is 5 p.m on Monday, Dec. 16, 2019. Questions can be directed to Julius Korley, korley@udel.edu.

For more information and applications, please visit: http://engr.udel.edu/news/2019/11/driven-partnership-program-2/