Working on an innovation? Apply for a FuzeHub grant.
FuzeHub manufacturing grants of up to $50,000 through the Jeff Lawrence Innovation Fund are available through a competitive application process open from February to February 28, 2019. The awards are designed to encourage collaboration between companies and non-profit organizations in New York State that work with the manufacturing industry.
Eligible Applicants
- New York State not-for-profit organizations.
- Applicants must partner with a small or medium sized (SME) manufacturer or other-early-stage company with a project relevant to the manufacturing sector. For the purposes of this grant, SME is defined as a business with at least one physical establishment in New York State, and no more than 500 employees across the entire firm or enterprise worldwide.
- All team members, including the company benefiting from the project, must be located in New York State. [2]
- Applicants may only submit one application.
- Community Colleges are eligible to submit one application.
- In the case of a university, up to three different centers or departments at a given university may apply. [3] University applicants must provide the subset of the university such as college, school or department in the application form.
- A not-for profit, or a specific department of a university, can only receive one Manufacturing Grant award per year.
Eligible Projects
Eligible projects will include those that are used by the applicant to assist companies with the following types of projects:
- Adoption of new technology to enhance a process and/or product
- Prototype development
- Design for manufacturing
- Proof-of-concept manufacturing
- Manufacturing scale-up
- Manufacturing-related equipment purchases
- Other projects to advance manufacturing or manufacturing capabilities
Award Details
Applicants may apply for up to $50,000. The number of awards made may vary by funding round depending on other uses of the Fund and the quality of applications received. FuzeHub maintains the right to award less than is being requested. All project funds must be expended within twelve months. A not-for profit, or a specific department of a university, can only receive one Manufacturing Grant award per year. Applicant teams involving companies with 50 or more employees combined are required to contribute a match according to the sliding scale (provided in the guidelines), with at least 50% of the match in the form of cash equity. If an application includes multiple companies, the match requirement is based on the total number of employees of the combined companies.
The Jeff Lawrence Innovation Fund supports a set of activities designed to spur technology development and commercialization across New York State. The Fund launched in December 2016 and is named for Jeff Lawrence, a champion of the New York manufacturing and entrepreneurial communities. The Innovation Fund comprises three program tracks:
- Manufacturing Grants
- Commercialization Competition
- Innovation Challenge
The Innovation Fund provides a $1M annual allocation of direct assistance to the manufacturing, research and development, technology and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Syracuse University LaunchPad startup SparkCharge was a 2017 FuzeHub Innovation Grant winner.