Verne A. and Ramoth H. Trask Venture Fund
Established in 1974 by a gift from Verne A. Trask in memory of her husband Ramoth H. Trask. The Fund is to be used for the development, protection, and exploitation of inventive ideas assigned to the Purdue Research Foundation.
The Trask Innovation Fund
The Purdue Research Foundation-managed Trask Innovation Fund is a Purdue University development mechanism to assist faculty with additional work to further commercial potential of intellectual property disclosed to the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC). Applicants for the funds are investigators actively engaged with their assigned case manager from the OTC regarding their disclosed technology. The Fund objective is to support short-term projects that will enhance commercial value of Purdue University intellectual property assets.
Financial support is designed to provide an individual technology portfolio up to $100,000 for a period of one year. The Fund does not support basic research but instead provides funds to reduce inventions to practice, provide critical additional data, or develop prototypes, which make the technology more marketable. Any royalty income derived, from a subsequent license deal, shall first be used to repay funds granted under the Trask Innovation Fund.
All proposals undergo dual review, which involves a peer review for science/technology quality and a commercialization review to assess market potential. Proposals will be reviewed only after a complete disclosure (www.prf.org/otc/) has been filed with the OTC. A post-award review will be conducted to evaluate the utilization of funds and resulting commercial potential. A Trask Innovation Fund Award Committee meets on a regular basis to review proposals submitted under this program. Following is the schedule for 2009 and 2010:
| Proposal Deadline – March 13, 2009 |
Committee Review – April 22, 2009 |
| Proposal Deadline – August 28, 2009 |
Committee Review – September 28, 2009 |
| Proposal Deadline – January 2010 |
Committee Review – February 2010 |
| Proposal Deadline – April 2010 |
Committee Review – May 2010 |
Proposal Guidelines
