The Tulane Innovation Institute, in collaboration with Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Robin Forman, has launched the Provost’s Proof of Concept Fund to provide competitive grants of up to $50,000 to help university faculty, graduate students or staff get promising ideas and technologies ready for the market.

The Tulane Innovation Institute was awarded $5 million from the state, part of the U.S. Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative, to support entrepreneurs and small business owners. And Tulane matched the award with another $5 million, enabling the Innovation Institute to launch a new startup fund dedicated to creating opportunities for women- and minority-led ventures in Louisiana.

The Tulane Innovation Institute hired Clay Christian as its first director of commercialization intelligence and assessment and Matt Koenig as the executive director of intellectual property management. Christian was previously responsible for cultivating relationships between the School of Medicine’s research enterprise and outside collaborators. Koenig served as the director of intellectual property management for the University of Kansas.

The Tulane Innovation Institute was awarded $5 million from the state, part of the U.S. Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative, to support entrepreneurs and small business owners. And Tulane matched the award with another $5 million, enabling the Innovation Institute to launch a new startup fund dedicated to creating opportunities for women- and minority-led ventures in Louisiana.