In an effort to provide innovative faculty with an incentive to move promising research discoveries into the marketplace, 1st Source Bank is sponsoring an annual award of up to $20,000 for researchers at the University of Notre Dame and the Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend (IUSM-SB) who have successfully commercialized their newest technologies.
Established last year with a $1 million gift from 1st Source Bank, the award will be presented each year to a Notre Dame or IUSM-SB faculty member in recognition for moving their technology out of the lab and into the marketplace.
The first award will be given next spring and nominations are being solicited. A selection committee chaired by Robert Bernhard, vice president for research at Notre Dame, will review nominations and select the awardee, who will be recognized at an awards banquet and symposium on technology commercialization.
“The goal of the 1st Source Commercialization Award is to encourage Notre Dame and IUSM-SB researchers to engage the market and share their discoveries with the world,” Bernhard said. “We are very pleased to be able to recognize our faculty and to highlight the important contribution their research can make to society, locally, nationally, even globally, when useful new products are developed as a result of their research.”
In addition to the commercialization award, the 1st Source gift also funds an annual lecture or symposium on technology commercialization, bringing to campus experienced entrepreneurs and investors, legal experts on company formation, and other university technology transfer professionals. The gift also permits small grants to help develop technologies that are well suited for commercialization through new commercial endeavors.
“We are grateful to 1st Source Bank for enabling us to offer our faculty this wonderful incentive to advance the teaching, research and engagement mission of the University,” said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president. “As we strive to find creative solutions to the challenges facing the world today, it is a fitting goal that the products of our research should be made available in the marketplace and it is my hope that our faculty will enthusiastically pursue such endeavors.”
Information about the nomination process for the 1st Source Faculty Commercialization Award is available through the Notre Dame Office of Technology Transfer at ott@nd.edu.