(NOTE: This article was originally published on Teknovation.biz)

By Tom Ballard, Chief Alliance Officer, PYA

Tennessee-based entrepreneurs seeking to commercialize technology with funding from two federal initiatives now have another tool in their toolkit, thanks to funding included in the 2017-18 State of Tennessee budget, and the application window is open.

As a result of a more than two-year effort, spearheaded by two statewide organizations – Launch Tennessee and Life Science Tennessee, Governor Bill Haslam recommended and the General Assembly approved $1.5 million for the new “SBIR/STTR Matching Fund Grants Program.” The dollars are non-recurring, meaning they will have to be included in next year’s state budget for the program to be more than a 12-month initiative.

The funding represents an important milestone in efforts to support more technology start-up growth in the Volunteer State. The $1.5 million pot of funds will be used to match federal grants that companies receive to advance their efforts to commercialize technologies important to the federal government. The state’s program has a cap of $150,000 that can be awarded to any one company.

“It allows us to remain competitive and keep really good start-ups here,” Lindsey Cox, Launch Tennessee’s Director of Operations and Government Affairs, said. Several of the states around Tennessee have already implemented similar initiatives, and some start-ups from here have relocated to those states to be eligible for their matching dollars.

Read more here.