2023 High Impact Technology (HIT) Fund — Call for Applications
The HIT Fund awards are for Stanford University innovators whose work has progressed towards developing solutions for specific commercial applications. The awards are intended to provide the seed funding for de-risking critical activities that enable technology transfer or securing additional funding from industry or venture capital.
The objective of the HIT Fund is to advance technologies to the point where additional external funding and/or technology transfer is achieved.
Milestone-based funding up to $250k will be awarded, typically for up to 12 months. The award amount will be based on the maturity of the project, a detailed budget, and clearly defined critical goals and deliverables.
Non-monetary support may include:
- Introductions to industry experts, potential customers, potential partners, and potential investors
- Access to MBA interns to help with business planning, customer needs discovery, go-to-market strategies, and creating pitch decks
- IP strategy and patent mapping
- Guidance on Stanford and external entrepreneurship programs and resources
Applications that are solely for non-monetary support for customer and market research activities (i.e. do not include a financial request) are also encouraged.
Additional information and full application can be downloaded at goto.stanford.edu/HITfund
For questions associated with the HIT Fund or the application process please contact:
The HIT Fund team at HITfund2023@stanford.edu
- Technology/solution has the potential to scale and have a societal or economic impact
- Demonstrated interest from potential industry partners or customers
- Competitive advantage over solutions that are currently available or in development
- A demo, prototype, and/or pilot program exists, or is proposed, sufficient to garner interest for technology transfer
- Current Stanford faculty, students, postdocs, or staff members
- Open to any Stanford school or institute
- Each proposal must have at least one faculty member as a principal investigator (PI)
- The intellectual property must have been disclosed to Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing (OTL)
Funding must be for projects undertaken at Stanford University. The project must have a clearly identifiable innovation component. Proposals must include an active principal investigator (PI) at Stanford. This is a competitive selection process and only the top-ranked proposals will be awarded.
Examples of activities eligible for funding include, but are not limited to:
- Prototype design & fabrication
- Contract manufacturing for scale-up & delivery of samples
- Customer & market research activities — needs discovery, go-to-market approaches, key partnerships
- Consultants — for technical guidance, market research, regulatory process
- Development of strategies for strengthening the technology's intellectual property portfolio
- Student and postdoc salary and stipends
