Center for Enterprise Innovation Hosts Two March Events
March 10, 2016
Two upcoming events hosted through Old Dominion University's Center for Enterprise Innovation (CEI) highlight the unique partnership, fostered by the center, between the University and local business community.
Formed in late 2013, CEI has built on decades of expertise at the University fusing campus to community. By bringing programs such as the Hampton Roads Veterans Business Outreach Center, Women's Business Center and Technology Applications Center under one structure, CEI helps Old Dominion University fulfill its mission as a true economic engine.
Two events hosted by CEI organizations help illustrate this unique partnership:
GOV2COM hosts challenge for entrepreneurs
GOV2COM, a series of interconnected programs created through CEI and designed to help government and military contractors better understand how to do business in the private sector, is partnering with Old Dominion's Strome Entrepreneurial Center to host the Market Bridge Challenge.
Local government and defense contractors, Old Dominion students and faculty and local companies will form teams to compete in a challenge that runs through July 21 in areas such as cybertechnology, unmanned systems, coastal resilience and data analytics. Category winners will be recognized and prizes awarded at the end of the competition.
Potential Market Bridge Challenge competitors, or those interested in serving as judges for the competition, are invited to an information session that kicks off the event on Tuesday, March 29, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Old Dominion University's Strome Entrepreneurial Center. To attend, please register ONLINE.
For more information about the Market Bridge Challenge or about GOV2COM, contact Elizabeth Dietzmann at edietzmann@gov2com.org or 573-578-1660.
GOV2COM, which was introduced to the Hampton Roads community last fall after being formed by funds received from the Virginia Department of Veterans Affairs, offers help for companies and entrepreneurs to move their business beyond government contracts.
GOV2COM targets local companies that recognize that government contracting, specifically military procurement, will be significantly more challenging in the years ahead. It offers assistance to businesses that face challenges moving into unfamiliar commercial markets.
Assistance for innovation grant applicants
A program jointly hosted by Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) and the ODU Enterprise Gateway (formerly the ODU Business Gateway, and the Hampton Roads Procurement Assistance Center (HRPAC) will offer assistance for individuals and companies applying for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants.
CIT, HRPAC with the Enterprise Gateway will host sessions March 24 to 26 to provide prospective applicants with tools to navigate the application process for the $150,000-to-$1.5 million early stage R&D funding available for high risk, new technology development.
The three-day workshop will include a day-long session on March 24 to provide the essentials for SBIR and STTR grant application, a best-practice session March 25 designed to increase University participation and a lunch-and-learn session that day about commercialization planning for SBIR- and STTR-stage companies.
The March 24 session will be at CEI's offices at 4111 Monarch Way, IRP Building 1, Suite 106. The March 25 events will be in Old Dominion's Webb University Center. Participants are urged to register online at www.cit.org/events, or contact Robert Brooke for more information, at Robert.brooke@cit.org or 703-689-3080.
The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) creates technology-based economic development strategies to accelerate innovation, imagination and the next generation of technology and technology companies. Created in 1985, CIT, a non-profit corporation, helps entrepreneurs launch and grow high-growth technology companies and create high-paying jobs for the future.
The Enterprise Gateway was founded as the ODU Business Gateway in 2010 to bring the University's expertise in areas such as government contracting, technology applications and procurement under a single, two-way connective organization.
It is now a housed with the Center for Enterprise Innovation, which builds on the evolving models of business incubation, acceleration and partnership to help companies at all stages of development.
For more information, see the Center for Enterprise Innovation website.