Moving Innovation Closer to the Market
The OU Growth Fund, a campus-specific fund outlined in the OU Intellectual Property policy, strengthens the commercial potential of disclosed University of Oklahoma innovations, and is available to researchers on all three campuses who seek funding for prototypes and/or additional commercially-focused research results.
All campus faculty, staff, and graduate students are eligible, and must have a disclosure on file with the Office of Technology Commercialization prior to application. More about the disclosure process can be found here.
The Growth Fund is strategically separated into two phases: Marketing Discovery and Translational Research. These phases build upon each other to provide crucial insights into a technology’s commercial value and progress along its commercial development pathway.
Market Discovery
During Market Discovery, campus inventors receive up to $5,000 to focus on understanding their innovation’s product-market fit, as well as the most strategic commercial development pathway.
Additionally, participants will gather feedback directly from industry on the market-centered data or prototypes that are necessary to move their innovation closer to commercialization.
Translational Research
Building upon information from Market Discovery, inventors can then qualify for up to $75,000 in the Translational Research phase.
This funding supports the shorter term, commercially-focused research plan that is developed based on industry feedback from the first Growth Fund phase. This research must move an innovation closer to commercialization.
Questions? Contact Andrew Pollock, Growth Fund Coordinator, at 405-325-3800 or OTC@ou.edu
