Vanderbilt's $50M discovery fund, TTDC's signal event
Milt Capps
Scholarly inquiry, scientific research and risk capital are in the spotlight this fall in Nashville, thanks to two distinct events: Vanderbilt University's latest investment in academic inquiry; and, a high-level meeting of investors and researchers convened by Tennessee Technology Development Corporation.In the first instance, Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nick Zeppos on Aug. 26 told the Faculty Senate that he is putting the final touches on a $50 million fund to support VU faculty research initiatives that have the potential to heighten Vanderbilt's academic standing among the nation's research universities. The second initiative: Tennessee Technology Development Corporation (TTDC), which spearheads tech-driven economic development, will hold its inaugural Tennessee Innovation Conference in Nashville, Nov. 20-21, at the Doubletree Hotel. The event will attract researchers from Vanderbilt and elsewhere, as well as intellectual-property experts and investors for discussions of tech commercialization, and will provide a showcase of current research that might be ready for business and industry within three years. Responding to Zeppos' funding announcement, Faculty Senate Chair Virginia Shepherd (at right) told VNC she believes the A 2004 Faculty Senate report on AVCF cited a range of aspirations of concerns about future funding and management of the program. Improving faculty involvement, the transparency of the AVCF funding process and ensuring support for scholarly research in the humanities - as well as in the medicine, engineering and other sciences - were among numerous themes in that report. Although the discovery fund has been labeled the "Academic Venture Capital Fund" since VU founded it with an initial $100 million allocation, last week both Zeppos and faculty representatives took pains to stress that the grants in no way represent support of commercial activity. Instead, the funds are solely to advance academic and scientific inquiry.
TTDC's November event is apparently unprecedented. TTDC Vice President Dan Schmisseur told VNC yesterday, Schmisseur said as many as 36 scientific researchers are likely to make presentations about their work during the TTDC event. He noted that roughly 60 research initiatives have been nominated for a presentation slot by tech-transfer officials with Vanderbilt, University of Tennessee Research Foundation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, University of Memphis, Tennessee Board of Regents, Y-12 National Security Complex, UT Space Institute and InMotion Musculoskeletal Institute. ♦
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