Catalyst Seed R&D Grant Program Application Opens

On Dec 7, 2021

The New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology (CSIT) opened applications for its $1.5 million Catalyst Seed Research and Development (R&D) Grant Program. The program is designed to help New Jersey-based startups accelerate development of technologies. Participating companies can use the grant funding to transform new discoveries from the research stage into commercially viable products and services. The application is available at https://www.njeda.com/catalyst-seed-grant-program/.

The Catalyst Seed R&D Grant Program is open to companies conducting R&D or testing technologies in the following areas that were identified as targeted industries in Gov. Phil Murphy’s economic development plan, “The State of Innovation: Building a Stronger and Fairer Economy in New Jersey”: Advanced Manufacturing, Transportation and Logistics, Film and Digital Media, Life Sciences (including, but not limited to: therapeutic drug development, diagnostics, and medical devices), Non-Retail Food and Beverage, Finance and Professional Services, and Technology.

The program will offer two grant components:

• Grants of up to $150,000 for projects that are developing life sciences therapeutics. It is anticipated that five awards will be made in this area.
• Grants of up to $75,000 for other innovation projects – non–life sciences therapeutics drug R&D projects and projects that are not eligible for the Clean Tech Seed Grant. It is anticipated that 10 awards will be made in this area.

The Catalyst Seed R&D Program is modeled after CSIT’s successful Clean Tech R&D Seed Grant Program, which awarded nearly $750,000 to startups statewide earlier this year. CSIT anticipates opening a second round of its Clean Tech Seed Grant program in early 2022. Therefore, companies that are working on research regarding the avoidance of emissions of, or recapture, greenhouse gases and/or criteria pollutants, or to enable such avoidance or recapture, will not be eligible to participate in the Catalyst Seed R&D Grant Program. Complete eligibility requirements can be found at http://www.njeda.com/csit.

CSIT hosted an information webinar on Dec. 7, which include included a walk-through of the Catalyst Seed R&D Program application. A recording of the webinar will be available on CSIT’s website.

Applicants for the Catalyst Seed R&D Grant Program will be required to demonstrate at least one of the following for their projects in order to be eligible for funding: description of the proof of concept results, published paper outlining results achieved, successful completion of a federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant or contract related to the project, and/or confirmation documentation from a university tech transfer office if the project relates to technology that has been developed at a university. Complete eligibility requirements can be found at http://www.njeda.com/csit.

In support of CSIT’s mission to foster diversity and inclusion, one grant award will be reserved for an applicant meeting the minimum scoring criteria of 70 points that is women-owned as certified by the State of New Jersey and one grant award will be reserved for an applicant meeting the minimum scoring criteria of 70 points that is minority-owned as certified by the State of New Jersey. If there are no applicants that meet these criteria the funds may be allocated to other applicants.

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