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It is anticipated that the majority of the applicants will emanate from the research universities and research labs throughout the Southeast. As a second source, applicants may be commercial opportunities presently being given active consideration by or, at most, be in the earliest stages of development by, a local entrepreneur (the prototypical "garage shop" operation). All of the candidates will come from the life sciences sector. Broadly defined, this includes products or services relating to: biotechnology (i.e., genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, monoclonals, stem cell products/strategies, gene therapy products/strategies, etc.); drug discovery/development for pharmaceuticals or biologicals; drug delivery; biomanufacturing technologies; diagnostics and research reagents/tools; biomedically-engineered products; medical devices; bioinformatics; agricultural and environmental biotechnology; and other similar technologies.
Assuming that these are the primary sources of the 'next great idea' we are seeking, those Emerging Opportunities that are selected to participate in the BIO/Plan Competition will, at minimum, demonstrate most, if not all, of the following:
- Be an unincorporated or newly incorporated opportunity with credentials that support the establishment of a free-standing, venture-fundable enterprise.
- Be supported by principals who have a reasonably good sense of what the underlying technologies and associated intellectual property (if any) might be that will serve as the backbone of the opportunity.
- Be supported by principals who are able to articulate a well thought-out conceptualization of what the commercial exploitation of the technology/opportunity might mean.
- Be supported by an individual or team of individuals who is/are genuinely committed to taking a dedicated commercial opportunity forward as an incorporated entity and who is/are willing and able to participate, either directly or in a significant supporting role, in advancing this effort, both during the actual competition and afterwards as the enterprise advances beyond the concept stage. Examples of such would be the inventor or inventors who conceived of the technology/opportunity originally, an entrepreneur who has taken an interest in the project that is the subject of the application, an assigned technology transfer officer resident in a Technology Transfer Office of a research university, and others with a similar commitment to the project.
- In most cases, these prospective or new enterprises will have had only modest funding from the typical pre-seed sources: traditional federal or state grants; university, state, local or non-profit association pre-seed (e.g., proof-of-concept) funds; personal funds.
- Not have received funds from a recognized, professional venture capital fund.
Please note that those young companies that are already reasonably well established, but not yet professionally funded, will find greater benefits from applying to the SEBIO Early-Stage Program where they will receive expanded mentoring and broader exposure to the investment community. Applications for this program begin in the early summer and can be accessed directly through this web site at that time. |
