RI Bio
Local Match: $297,500
RI Bio, the life science trade organization for the state of Rhode Island, is seeking the 2020 Venture Challenge Build grant, matched by RI Bio and its regional partners, to be deployed over 3 years to expand the research and commercial activity in Rhode Island’s promising life science sector.
Funding will permit RI Bio to progress its suite of business and technical assistance that has been provided to the state life science community since 2013, including; training in change management and communication, conflict resolution, team building, scientific grant writing, FDA regulatory navigation, intellectual property assessment and filing, and pitch preparation and introductions for venture financing.
RI sits at the center of a 33-million-person megalopolis that stretches from Portland, ME, to metropolitan New York. Each year this region produces a combined economic output of $2.1 trillion and a combined innovation output of 16,000 patents. Home to premier academic and research institutions in fields ranging from biotech, healthcare management, the food sciences, and design to health infrastructure, oceanography, and marine technology, RI also possesses a diversified portfolio of knowledge assets within its borders.
RI is home to healthcare and academic institutions poised to translate innovative science to the commercial markets. The grant proposal details how RI Bio will mobilize and coordinate much of these assets to assist regional entrepreneurs in developing valuable, first-in-class treatments and devices capable of invigorating the state’s economy while providing much needed care for patients in the form of therapeutic, medical device, and digital health technologies.