Washington Research Foundation, a Seattle-based nonprofit that funds research and scholarship in Washington state, awarded more than $1.2 million for entrepreneurship training programs at the University of Washington and Washington State University.
The money will support the Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Program (PEP), a UW effort to help researchers commercialize their innovations. The award will also help establish a parallel program at WSU later this year. PEP, administered by the UW’s CoMotion innovation arm, launched a decade ago and has supported 29 startups and founders, including Membrion CEO Greg Newbloom and A-Alpha Bio CEO David Younger.
“The commercialization of technologies developed in the state’s research institutions has the potential to deliver profound economic and societal benefits that will be felt throughout our region and the world,” François Baneyx, UW’s vice provost for innovation and director of CoMotion, said in a statement.