The NC Biotechnology Center (NCBC) Collaborative Funding Grant Program (CFG) is designed to encourage collaboration between academia and industry, helping to move technology from the lab to commercialization. The program supports postdoctoral fellows in university research laboratories who perform projects of commercial interest under the guidance of faculty principal investigators.
The CFG program has been a successful partnership between the Kenan Institute for ETS and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center for close to 20 years. Close to $6.0 million from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and the Kenan Institute have been awarded to grant recipients since the program initiated. As a result of the money awarded in the CFG program, more than $352 million dollars in additional investments have been received from outside sources by the grant recipients based on information from 90 closed grants.
Some specific outcomes include the following:
- 338 publications authored (including journal articles, books and book chapters);
- 60 patents granted;
- 6 North Carolina companies started: Advanced Liquid Logic Inc.; Cytex Therapeutics Inc.; Yamco LLC; HCEC, Aseptia (Thermalytics) and Wineformatics LLC.
To date, the program has resulted in awards to 13 different University/Non-Profits in partnerships with 75 different companies. The following grant was recently awarded for fiscal year 2016-17:
PI: Dr. Sung Woo Kim of NC State University
Company Partner: BioResource International
Project Title: Novel Application of Xylanase with Direct Fed Microbials to Manage Emerging Challenges in Growth and Gut Health of Young Pigs