Ben Franklin Partnership Sets A New Funding Pace

Only five years old, Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Partnership Fund, a statewide technology-transfer program, has already become a model for states that want to encourage scientists and engineers to develop the commercial potential of their research. Since its founding, the Partnership’s support of collaboration between small bus inesses and academic scientists has produced a wide range of results, including: * Products to detect drugs in saliva " SO2 and HCI sensors for use in smokestacks * A canine artificial insemination system using frozen semen * Amorphous silicon thin-film transistors for use in liquid crystal displays " Test kits for diabetic patients using monoclonal antibody-based diagnostics for glycohemoglobin and glycoalbumin " Improved methods to make effective mosquitocides " Methods for the synthesis of labeled polyunsaturated fatty acids * A computer system for analyzing steel for ultrasonic knives * Perfluorocarbons for cancer chemotherapy and radiation therapy * An implantabie extratympanic hearing aid that because of the Partnership’s loose job-tracking system, auditors could not verify the program’s claim that it had created or retained 10,664 jobs. By the end of 1987, the program had helped fund 1,500 projects with about 2,500 companies, and some 30 patents had been obtained by researchers supported by the program. It has served as a model for similar programs in Michigan, Massachusetts, and Ohio. And perhaps most important to Pennsylvania’s scientists and engineers, the Ben Franklin Partnership has given them $102 million. “Some states fund universities; some states fund private technological development. What the Ben Franklin did uniquely was to provide money for both of those sectors, so the for-profit and nonprofit sectors could work collaboratively,” says Phillip Singerman, executive director of the Partnership’s Advanced Technology Center of Southeastern Pennsylvania, which is responsible for distributing Partnership funds. Money from the Partnership is supporting development of what should prove to be a rich diversity of new products. A Drexel University-based team, for example, is developing a traction device for arthroscopic surgery; another Drexel group is refining a method to use electrical stimulation to reduce the time for orthodontic tooth movement, and a Temple University team is developing a sunburn meter to let sunbathers monitor their tanning. The program was instituted in the wake of the recession of the early 1980s, which hit bard at Pennsylvania’s economy, traditionally based on heavy “smoke-stack” industries such as steel manufacturing. Beginning with $1 million in state funds, the Partnership was chartered to expand the state’s economic base, update ailing industries, and help the state attract high-growth, advanced technology companies. To foster this diversification of the state’s vulnerable economy, the Partnership offers two types of grants. Seed grants, of under $35,000 each, go to small businesses (with fewer than 250 employees) working on scientific or engineering problems. Challenge grants, which require matching funds from private sources, go primarily to entrepreneurial scientists working with universities. These awards range from $50,000 to $150,000 apiece. The first step in the grant program requires applicants to prepare a detailed proposal complete with technical and financial information. The Ben Franklin application process is “not too bad as these things go,” says Robert Snetsinger, an entomologist at Pennsylvania State University who, with Dorsey Dunlap—a businessman semiretired from a career as a consultant to the pesticide industry—applied last year to the Partnership for funds to match university and private contributions toward developing a nontoxic cockroach control made from freshwater diatoms and citrus oil. Last year, four months after their initial application, Snetsinger and Dunlap received approval. The most common error scientists make in proposals is to exaggerate either the commercial or technical potential of their work, Singerman says. “We have an extraordinarily skilled technical review committee. They are able to spot exaggeration in a second.” “I kind of fit a classic example of what they’re looking for,” says Stephen Maul, a biochemist from Worthington, Pa. He saw commercial promise in a fungus, Pisolithua pinctorius, which helps trees grow in harsh conditions such as on strip-mined reclamation sites. The organism has already been isolated by the U.S. Forestry Service; Maul’s goal was to produce and market large amounts of it. Maul put together a proposal in cooperation with Pennsylvania’s Clarion University requesting funds from the Partnership. Maul constructed the proposal to show “I had some kind of expertise”—a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, postdoctoral work in fermentation technology at MIT employment with two pharmaceutical firms and a mushroom spawn company. Maul and his Clarion partners also demonstrated “some decent prospect of success.” That part wasn’t difficult, Maul says. ‘The technology was there; it was merely a matter of scaling it up.” Maul’s one-man company, Mycorr Tech. and the Clarion partners received $50,000 from the Partnership in 1987. Combined with Maul’s own money and funds raised from a stock offering, the grant has kept the fungus project going during a year of development. “I think we have a good commercial process Maul says. While the fund is designed primarily to boost startups, it also can help older companies. One such grant enabled Alton Welding Co. Inc., a small Philadelphia factory, to install a robot for repetitive welding tasks. Another Ben Franklin award allowed Natco International, a Philadelphia manufacturer, to update the technology for making compounds used in steel casting. The total amount of Ben Franklin funding divided among the successful applicants is determined by the state legislature each year. In 1983-84, the Partnership fund grew from $1 million to $10 million. The following year, it jumped to $18 million. For 1988-89 the appropriation is $29 million. The course hasn’t been entirely smooth for the program: The performance audit by the state’s General Assembly in early 1988 noted that because of the partnerships loose job-tracking system, auditors could not verify the program's claim that it had created or retained 10,664 jobs. However auditors did praise the program’s assistance to individual firms and its creation of links between business and academia. Singerman says the response from the private sector proves the program is working. ‘The evidence for that is indicated by the matching dollars,” he says. The fund’s grants have generated more than three times their value in investments from other sources. “People would not put in that money if they didn’t believe they were getting value.” The program has three success secrets, says Singerman. It’s decentralized and flexible, enabling it to handle regional concerns. It’s responsive to the marketplace. And it builds on the research strengths at the state’s universities. Wendy Walker is a freelance writer in Chadds Ford, Pa.

Ben Franklin Partnership Sets A New Funding Pace

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