Non-profit offers bridge to future of advanced materials

PORTSMOUTH, R.I.—Rhode Island's future looks bright in the aerospace, undersea, textile and composite industries, but connections need to be made for innovations to occur.

As such, a non-profit economic development organization that launched late last year is offering funding toward advanced materials development through an all-inclusive challenge, one that involves academia, trade organizations, states and defense agencies, businesses and research and development firms.

401 Tech Bridge, with a 17,000-sq.-ft. facility in Portsmouth and a 10,000-sq.-ft. building in Kingston at the University of Rhode Island, said applications for the Materials Innovation Challenge will be accepted through Oct. 19.

A webinar on the challenge will be offered Sept. 24 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at 401techbridge.org.

"There are incredible resources and talent available in the state of Rhode Island," Mary Johnson, manager at 401 Tech Bridge, said in a statement. "401 Tech Bridge helps fill a critical gap to enable academia to collaborate with commercial entities and government partners. This includes bringing people together that not only understand the technology, but how to successfully bring a product to market."

Advanced materials are altering the landscape of aerospace, automotive, energy and oceanographic technology, according to the non-profit. The funding provided by the 401 Tech Bridge Materials Innovation Challenge is intended to help bring technology, products and processes to the market.

Businesses of all sizes are encouraged to enter the contest, which includes the ability to work with University of Rhode Island professors Arun Shukla, Sumanta Das and Helio Matos—considered some of the top advanced materials researchers—to explore new opportunities or solve existing problems.

"URI has virtually unlimited potential as far as faculty, students and research tools to perform truly ground-breaking advanced materials research," Katherine Flynn, executive director of the University of Rhode Island Business Engagement Center, said in a news release. "A lot of these resources are not currently available to companies, especially smaller ones, so they can really benefit from this opportunity. At the same time, the students get to see their research ideas come to life in real world applications."

The Materials Innovation Challenge offers businesses access to academic resources, research, validation and prototype testing at 401 Tech Bridge's Portsmouth facility.

According to 401 Tech Bridge, the facility offers neutral lab and equipment space for industry, government and academic partners to problem-solve and present solutions. The facility also is used for presentations, gatherings, training sessions and temporary workspace for companies involved in 401 Tech Bridge-based projects.

Awarded projects will begin in early 2021. Applicants do not need to be Rhode Island-based or of a certain size to submit.

The Materials Innovation Challenge is supported by MEP National Network, NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology, URI Business Engagement Center, URI College of Engineering and URI Ventures.

401 Tech Bridge is a business unit of The University of Rhode Island Research Foundation, and serves as a partner intermediary organization for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport, supporting the Naval X Northeast Tech Bridge.