West Mich i6 Green consortium offers scale-up, business support services | News

HOLLAND, Mich. — Entrepreneurs and small businesses can now apply for a range of subsidized business support and chemical production scale-up services from the MSU Bioeconomy Institute in Holland, Mich. The support and services are funded through an Economic Development Administration i6 Green “Proof of Concept Center” grant.

Companies may apply for support in developing a broad spectrum of emerging “green” technologies, including those using bio-based starting materials, those using less energy or producing less environmental impact, those creating environmentally useful or more benign end products, and those enabling enhanced recycling of products and wastes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is providing supplemental support specifically for water purification efforts within the project.

Business support services offered through i6 Green include:

·         Business planning

·         Market assessment assistance

·         Grant-writing aid – e.g., for SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) or STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer),  and seed fund grant proposals

·         Product, service and brand evaluation

·         Innovation assessment and training

·         Human Factors

·         Referrals to the investor community

·         Chemical scale-up production in the Institute’s 25,000+ L reactor suite

Services will be provided by a consortium, which includes Lakeshore Advantage, Michigan State University, NewNorth Center for Design in Business, and the Prima Civitas Foundation. “Applications for specific services, such as industrial-scale chemical pilot plant scale-ups, are already being accepted. We welcome all inquiries, as well as indications of needs we should address in the future,” said Randy Olinger, director of the BioBusiness Accelerator for Lakeshore Advantage.

According to William Freckman, director of operations for the institute, “In the last year, the MSU Bioeconomy Institute has successfully performed pilot plant scale-ups for four start-ups and one publicly traded corporation. The subsidized ‘green chemistry’ services offered through i6 Green are a natural extension of those efforts.”

The i6 Green project also seeks to address facets of green technology that are frequently overlooked, to their eventual commercial detriment.

“Compared to many business incubators and accelerators, this project is unusual in addressing the issues of innovation readiness, human factors, aesthetics, promoting innovation and brand awareness,” said Stephanie Elhart, director of client relations at NewNorth Center. “Considering these factors can help turn a promising technology into a viable product that earns customer acceptance.”

“Winning the i6 Green project is the result of the economic diversification and sustainability leadership now emerging in Michigan,” said Steve Webster, chair and CEO of the Prima Civitas Foundation. “We are grateful for the matching support of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and we look forward to broadened collaborations with bio-based initiatives across the state and region.”

More about i6 Green services, as well as MSU Bioeconomy Institute events and infrastructure, may be found at http://bioeconinst.msu.edu.