Investment Grant Programs - Investing in Arizona's Future
Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz) is helping ensure Arizona’s competitive future by investing in areas of strategic importance to the state including:
1. Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
2. Sustainable Systems (SUS)
3. Biomedical Research (BIO)
Please visit this link for greater explanations on the three strategic areas.>>
The diagram below illustrates how these three key strategic areas are linked to our five investment grant categories. In general, these strategic areas and the correponding grant programs determine the scope of SFAz's investments.
Six Investment Grant Program Categories SFAz is committed to investing early in individuals who have the highest potential to drive innovation and a high quality of life in Arizona. Graduate Research Fellowships are awarded up to two consecutive years to top graduate students from around the country in science, math and engineering to study at Northern Arizona University, Arizona State University and University of Arizona. Candidates are nominated by academic institutions and the fellowships cover full tuition and expenses of $40,000 annually. The Competitive Advantage Awards program invests in researchers of exceptional quality to create a competitive advantage in three strategic areas: Sustainable Systems (SUS), Information Communication Technologies (ICT) , and Biosciences (BIO). The purpose of the CAA program is to identify research proposals that have the greatest potential to secure significant federal grants following a Science Foundation Arizona investment award. The Strategic Research Group investments seeds partnerships between researchers at research-performing institutions and industry partners in areas of strategic importance to Arizona . The purpose of this investment is to increase the probability of attracting major federal research center funding or large group grants. Each investment proposal must define how it manages and/or leverages intellectual property to the competitive advantage of Arizona. The K-12 Teacher and Student Discovery Program includes three complementary components: the Teacher Research/Learning Program, the Elementary School Mathematics/Science Program and the K-12 Innovation Experience. In order to stimulate new and exciting approaches to K-12 education, the successful SFAz investments provide students and teachers with learning experiences that help build the foundation essential for the new enterprises of the 21st century. The Small Business Catalytic funding program focuses on making “seed” investments in innovation at Arizona’s research-performing institutions that potentially have high-impact commercial outcomes. SFAz investments are intended to leverage the ability of Arizona’s researchers to secure larger amounts of funding for technology commercialization. Companies created as a result of SFAz investments must remain in Arizona for a minimum of five years. The purpose of this focus is to create a catalyst for technology development, company formation and high-tech job creation in Arizona. The future of Arizona and the nation is linked to the creativity and competitiveness of the next generation of academic researchers in science and engineering. To this end, SFAz has initiated a new program for the recruitment and mentoring of top-tier, post-doctoral scientists and engineers in Arizona. This program is named the Bisgrove Post Doctoral Scholar Award (‘Bisgrove Scholars’), in recognition of businessman and philanthropist, Mr. Jerry Bisgrove, who made a $25 million donation to SFAz in 2007 to help create a stronger culture for science and engineering entrepreneurship in Arizona.
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These investments are providing Arizona’s citizens with a return on their investment and are positioning Arizona for success by:
- Seeding partnerships between businesses, industry and Arizona’s research centers
- Catalyzing technology development, company formation, and knowledge- based employment in Arizona
- Enabling researchers to better target and qualify for federal research funding
- Advancing K-12 science and mathematics education for teachers and students
- Attracting top graduate students in research & technology to pursue their graduate studies and remain in Arizona to further their careers
- Supporting our state’s research institutions to become even more globally competitive