News

Montana Bioscience Workforce Mini Grants

Sustainable Bioproducts

the Montana Bioscience Cluster is one of seven entities across the United states that the SBA selected to receive contract awards for innovation cluster development. This initiative consists of four key components:

 

  1. A platform to facilitate peer to peer engagement and messaging to the world about Montana’s strengths in meeting critical location factors and providing intellectual capital for the bioscience industry.
  2. Workforce development programs that align precisely with existing and anticipated industry need.
  3. Ongoing technical assistance to create a holistic continuum of support from startup ideation to export assistance.
  4. A gap fund, “The 4th F Fund” used to provide direct assistance to bioscience entrepreneurs in need of money for travel to key conferences, small equipment purchases, or temporary staff assistance in relation to proposal development, etc. This fund is designed for maximum flexibility in support of bioscience entrepreneurs. Beneficiaries will be asked to pay it forward should their commercial endeavor prove viable and profitable.

 

Montana Bioscience Cluster Initiative

The Montana Bioscience Cluster Initiative is a multidimensional program with seasoned stakeholders from the private sector, university, economic development, trade associations and others who already have boots on the ground providing technical assistance as well as support, training, and mentoring to new and established life science businesses, entrepreneurs and students.

The Montana Bioscience Cluster Initiative will consist of four key components.

  1. A platform to facilitate peer to peer engagement and messaging to the world about Montana’s strengths in meeting critical location factors and providing intellectual capital for the bioscience industry.
  2. Workforce development programs that align precisely with existing and anticipated industry need.
  3. Ongoing technical assistance to create a holistic continuum of support from startup ideation to export assistance.
  4. A gap fund, “The 4th F Fund” used to provide direct assistance to bioscience entrepreneurs in
    need of money for travel to key conferences, small equipment purchases, or temporary staff assistance in relation to proposal development, etc. This fund is designed for maximum flexibility in support of bioscience entrepreneurs. Beneficiaries will be asked to pay it forward should their commercial endeavor prove viable and profitable.


Rapidly, Montana is becoming home to knowledge-based industries in verticals with geographically agnostic business models, including bioscience. Knowledge-based workers serving these industries demand the quality of life that our largely rural communities can provide. And in some cases, a relatively remote setting is an essential location factor for certain types of business. For example, there is a Level IV bioscience research facility in Hamilton, Montana which carries out research on some of the most virulent diseases in the world. In fact, the existence of this facility, Rocky Mountain Labs, was pivotal in Glaxo Smith Kline’s decision to locate their manufacturing facility in the same, rural community. And when GlaxoSmithKline decided to consolidate its research and development functions in Maryland several years ago, their existing cadre of highly qualified researchers, stayed to form their own bioscience startup, Inimmune. Inimmune is creating jobs and making meaningful capital investments in Montana, even as a startup, particularly given their ability to secure SBIR funding. Places like Bozeman Montana have also seen their share of success on the bioscience front.  Takeda decided to build up a new vaccine unit in 2012 with a $60MM acquisition of Bozeman-based Ligocyte Pharmaceuticals. SiteOne Therapeutics, a private biopharmaceutical company advancing novel non-opioid pain therapeutics, has received substantial venture capital from a number of well known biotech investors. Early stage research and development for drug discovery? We’ve got it. Cutting-edge cancer research, Yes. Pain treatment without opioids. Indeed. Big data analysis paired with genetics? Check. The list goes on. And much of the supporting infrastructure is already in place in some of the “larger“ communities in Montana. For example, in Missoula Montana (population 79,000), is the University of Montana. UM is known for its cutting-edge bio-related research, widely recognized as a national leader in biotechnology commercialization. It has a top tier pharmaceutical school, a two-year college for technical training for the bioscience industry, as well as a technology incubator with some limited infrastructure to serve bioscience firms such as wet labs. In Bozeman, (population 45,000) Montana State University offers a pre-med program, and boasts cutting edge bioscience research in fields of growing importance such as CRISPR which holds substantial promise in the treatment of genetic disorders.

But how do we leverage these successes in a manner that helps more companies to grow, helps make the case for bio science firms that may be looking for vertical integration of their supply chains, redundancy in supply chain, or for research and development partners to look at Montana? How can we provide the requisite ecosystem and pathways to engender the formation of more bioscience activity while bringing this momentum to greater degree to more rural Montana communities and entrepreneurs that wish to participate in this space?

Montana Bioscience Cluster Initiative partners stand ready to serve in fostering the growth of bioscience in Montana with proven track records of collaborative program design and execution and integrated  programs fostering innovation, technology commercialization, entrepreneurship and sustainable small business. The Montana Bio Science Cluster Initiative aims to support and grow the myriad bioscience businesses that have organically taken root in Montana as well as fostering the growth of related startups across Montana as part of a larger life sciences ecosystem.

If you know of any bioscience companies in your communities who have infrastructure needs, workforce development needs, or have internshipopportunities, please let me know ([email protected]). The MT Bioscience Cluster is ready to provide technical assistance, support, training, and mentoring. We are currently putting together internship programs for students and we also have some mini grants available from our “4th F Fund” for bioscience firms to apply for.  Here is the link to the application: https://montec.submittable.com/submit/140901/montana-bioscience-cluster-4th-f-fund-application. I have also attached more information on background, format, eligibility, and evaluation criteria to pass on to any entrepreneurs, startups, or small businesses that would be interested in applying additional funding. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

The objective of the 4th “F” Fund is to provide direct assistance to Montana bioscience entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses in need of money for travel to key conferences, small equipment purchases or temporary staff assistance in relation to proposal development, ect. This fund is designed for maximum flexibility in support of new and established businesses and entrepreneurs in the bioscience industry.

The 4th F Fund for the Montana Bioscience Cluster Initiative

Objective:

The objective of the 4th “F” Fund (4FF) is to provide direct assistance to Montana bioscience entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses in need of money for travel to key conferences, small equipment purchases, or temporary staff assistance in relation to proposal development, ect. This fund is designed for maximum flexibility in support of new and established businesses and entrepreneurs in the bioscience industry.

Background:

Many, if not most, startup ideas require some small level of expenditure in order to better define, refine or validate their business, product or service ideas. Expenditures may relate to activities such as:

  • Market research activities (including costs of trips to trade shows, potential customers or suppliers)
  • Product design, prototyping or testing
  • Patent searches or provisional patent applications
  • Legal costs

These “proof of concept” activities precede startups being able to demonstrate viable products and services to customers that might otherwise result in orders and revenue. With orders a startup may be able to gain funding via customer prepayments or from angels, banks or other investors willing to invest on the basis of customer commitments.

Entrepreneurs and innovators can and do put sweat equity and their own money into such “proof of concept” activities and call on friends and contacts for help to minimize such costs. But such endeavors can only take them so far. At which point startup founders often turn to the so-called “3Fs” of friends, family and fools to source funds to cover these startup activities.

In Montana however, low income levels mean that many bioscience entrepreneurs have no, or little, access to 3F funding. The 4th F fund would address this need and gap.

4FF Format:

The initial 4FF format would be a grant program. The regulatory burden and costs associated with any form of lending or investing prohibit alternative formats at this stage, although such formats will be explored in the future depending on the interest levels and success of the grant format.

The fund will provide grants of $250 to $5,000. In exceptional circumstances the fund may consider larger applications. Grants may be awarded in phases (e.g. $1,000 initially with additional $1,000 on achieving specific milestone).


4FF Eligibility Criteria:

  • Open to all bioscience entrepreneurs in Montana
  • Open to for-profit, not-for-profit and social entrepreneurship ideas

Evaluation Criteria:

4FF will favor grants to applicants that demonstrate the following:

  • Prior commitment of time and resources to researching or developing the idea
  • Evidence that the entrepreneur or team has sought guidance from the Montana Bioscience Cluster Initiative
  • A clear rationale, purpose and budget for the requested funding
  • Outline plan for continued development and commercialization following the completion of the funded activities

In some circumstances the 4FF funding committee may propose a grant award conditional on the applicant demonstrating additional progress in line with the above criteria.

Recipient Obligations, Requirements & Requests:

  • Requirement to have a legal entity to receive the grant funds
  • Obligation to account for expenditures funded by the grant.
  • Obligation to share insights and lessons learned
  • Request to consider contributing funds to the 4FF in the future if the venture experiences a future significant funding event or achieves significant profitability.

Governance:

  • The 4FF will be operated and administered by MonTEC and overseen by the Montana Bioscience Cluster.
  • A grant award committee will be established by the Montana Bioscience Cluster and responsibility for grant awards will be delegated to the grant award committee.
  • The funding committee will meet monthly to review applications, or as needed.
  • The funding committee will be responsible for determining how available funds are distributed over any given period.

News Catrgory Sponspor:


Dorsey & Whitney - An International business law firm, applying a business perspective to clients' needs in Missoula, Montana and beyond.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.