Halifax IDA R&D Grant Request Moves Forward
Halifax County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) received word on Tuesday, January 13, 2015 that its second application through the Tobacco Indemnification and Communities Revitalization Commission's (TIRC) Research & Development (R&D) Committee had been moved forward to the vetting stage. "This is a significant milestone," explains Matt Leonard, the IDA's Executive Director. "As with all Tobacco Commission programs, the R&D award process is stringent and outcome driven. The outcome is jobs. The process is multi-staged, and includes independent, outside, expert vetting."
Eligible organizations, like the IDA, can apply through the TIRC's R&D program for funds between $250,000 and $2,000,000 to support the final stages of new product research and development leading to commercialization. The IDA's grant request totals $1,695,314 in support of Autonomous Marine Systems (AMS), a company formed nearly seven years ago by two Princeton educated engineers and businessmen. If awarded, the grant would be matched dollar-for-dollar by the company.
The TIRC R&D program includes the following stepwise approach: TIRC R&D proposals are reviewed by TIRC staff, which makes recommendations to the R&D Committee as to whether they have merit to move to vetting. In this round, the IDA's proposal is ranked third out of thirteen. The R&D Committee then reviews staff recommendations and makes its recommendations to the full Commission. The full Commission votes on which proposals to move to vetting. Vetting takes a few months and results in scoring based on technical merit, commercialization potential and business planning. These scores are reported back to the R&D Committee, who then make recommendation for grant awards to the full Commission. It is anticipated that the full Commission will make R&D program awards in May of this year.
On October 29th, the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center (SVHEC) hosted 400 sixth grade students from Halifax County Middle School for the "You Are the Engineer of Your Career" Workshop. Students were introduced to engineering careers through participation in eight engineering focused activities including 3D printing, reverse engineering, and extracting DNA from strawberries (click here to read descriptions of all workshop activities). Staff members from NASA-Langley were onsite and led several student activities."We wanted to give students a day to come and have a hands-on, interactive learning experience focused on science, technology, engineering, and math, and having NASA folks here interacting with students was an opportunity we couldn't pass up," said Amy Cole, SVHEC Director of Student Services & Partner Relations.
Continuing a trend that began in 2008, students in the Product/Industrial Design & Development programs at the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center (SVHEC) earned honors in a national woodworking competition.
