We support a full spectrum of research activities through the Innovation Institute’s University Match Fund. In all cases, our goal is to assist research centers in creating conditions that increase the probability that research outcomes will translate into business opportunities.
Nanomanufacturing
In one of our first investments, the Nanomanufacturing Center of Excellence at UMass Lowell, faculty and staff are piloting an approach called Accelerated Technology Transfer Teams (AT3), high-value research projects defined by and worked on with industry. One AT3 team is working on a breakthrough nanoscale automated feeding system for cell cultures to enhance the efficiency and consistency of biological research.
As a comprehensive research center, the Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing (CHM) at UMass Amherst includes research on device design, modeling, and prototype testing in functional architectures—taking best advantage of the specific hierarchical nanomanufacturing capabilities developed by the center. With funds from the National Science Foundation and an Innovation Institute Matching Grant award, these research capacities are yielding materials and devices with unprecedented performance characteristics that can enhance devices in computing and information processing, energy conversion, and human health. The Center also addresses critical nanomanufacturing scale-up and process design issues to enhance traditional manufacturing processes.
Transformational Research
Similarly, Northeastern University operates the Center for Awareness and Localization of Explosives-Related Threats (ALERT), a center funded by an Innovation Institute Matching Grant award and funds from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Center brings together a proven university/national/laboratory/industry team to address the vast array of explosives-related threats to our homeland. The Center accomplishes this by conducting transformational research and technology development of effective products and systems for the detection, mitigation, and response to the explosives threats facing the United States.