UofL wins grant to help women, minority scientists become entrepreneurs

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -The University of Louisville and two other schools will be helping women and minority faculty, staff and student innovators improve their success in securing money to commercialize their inventions.

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $225,000 grant to UofL, Indiana University and Missouri University of Science and Technology for a pilot program, called AWARE: ACCESS: Building Innovation Capacity through Diversity.

“Women and underrepresented researchers have great ideas that need to be translated into the marketplace” said Rob Keynton, UofL’s director of research initiatives and lead investigator of the program. “Unfortunately, these innovators have had limited success in securing federal business grants and other funding. We hope to change that with this new program.”

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, woman- and minority-owned small businesses receive less than 16 percent of federal grants (SBIR/STTR) to move their research and technology to the marketplace.

The pilot program has four major goals for women and minority academic innovators:

• Identify, engage and mentor them to pursue entrepreneurship as a career
• Expand educational, experiential and networking opportunities
• Enhance their competitiveness for federal grant applications
• Create a regional ecosystem for entrepreneurs and sharing of best practices by UofL, IU and MST

“The National Science Foundation recognizes the tremendous potential of women and underrepresented groups in innovation,” said NSF Program Director Jesus Soriano. “We hope the AWARE program will enable more underserved groups to achieve their technological and commercial potential and enhance U.S. leadership in science and engineering discovery.”