CI announces innovation challenge winners

Connecticut Innovations (CI) recently announced the winners of its Innovation Challenge, which gives small technology companies the opportunity to work with both Connecticut universities and large corporations on technology-related challenges.

The two winning proposals received a total $300,000 in research grants and came from Owlstone Inc. of Norwalk and AgriFuels L.L.C. of East Hartford.

“By encouraging and supporting collaborations between Connecticut businesses and universities, we aim to capitalize on one of Connecticut”™s greatest assets, its talent pool, and accelerate technology commercialization,” said Claire Leonardi,  CI CEO, in a statement.

CI is the state’s quasi-public lending authority, aimed to assist early-stage technology companies with growth potential. Established by the Connecticut legislature in 1989, CI has created more than 26,000 jobs and financed $4 billion.

Owlstone will partner with the University of Connecticut to develop more powerful display technology for security and defense applications for Ultra Electronics Measurement Systems Inc. AgriFuels will partner with Yale University and UConn to develop green refineries for the chemical company BASF.

The project teams will have one year to work on the projects. The next round of CI innovation challenges will be announced later this year.