services

Connect with Faculty and Business

We're working hard to connect entrepreneurial faculty within our college and university network with business partners to help drive commercialization. With 3000 faculty members to choose from, working with ITN is like working with a major research institution!

As a PA BUSINESS professional, we know you don't have time to visit every campus and roam the hallways to meet talented faculty and pick the individual(s) that best suits your project. Let us do that for you! We'll work with you to understand your business needs, and then do our best to identify and locate the right faculty/student combination.  (To help raise your visibility and foster connections, we encourage you to post your profile to our interactive Enclave community.)  Connect with Jennifer to start your conversation.

As a ACADEMIC member, we know you're busy with a full course load, student-related activities, and existing project work. And we know you appreciate assistance identifying and connecting with businesses on projects for both you and your students. Let us help you engage with business and connect on potential student-related projects. We'll work with you to understand your specialties and project interests, and then do our best to connect you with the right business partner to make it happen.  (To help raise your visibility and foster connections, we encourage you to post your profile to our interactive Enclave community.) Connect with Malcolm to start your conversation.

What kind of projects do faculty, students and businesses work on?

• accelerating new product development
• refining existing products
• competitive analysis and data collection
• validating product deliverables
• providing graphics, design, and messaging for product launch
• testing new products
• scientific research
• assisting in prototype development
• providing due diligence for market expansion

Industry expertise varies by project, however, here are a few examples of the sand boxes we play in:

• information technology
• health care
• manufacturing
• energy
• biodiesel
• agriculture

Intellectual Property

ITN has established relationships with intellectual property (IP) professionals in the education sector who can assist partner institutions, faculty, and their business colleagues with IP questions and opportunities ranging from definitions, to the development of technology transfer agreements, NDA's and other templates.

NSF-PFI Seed Assistance Grants

National Science Foundation-Partnerships for Innovation Project (NSF-PFI):  As an extension of the KIZ/ITN goals, Penn State Harrisburg was recently awarded NSF-PFI funding to enhance infrastructure capacity building and partnership development for most of the ITN colleges/universities. Key initiatives include:
•    Identify pillars of research strength among participating colleges/universities
•    Pinpoint perceived faculty barriers to forming industrial collaborations
•    Implement strategies for creating successful partnerships
•    Inventory  human and physical resources
•    Conduct innovation conferences and regional research symposia
•    Provide seed funding for academic/industry partnerships with commercial potential

See Grant Application for additional details and deadlines.

Out of Cycle Seed Assistance Application

Please click on the following link to download and view the application.

Federal and State Grants