The UConn Office of the Vice President for Research established the START Preliminary Proof-of-Concept (PPOC) Fund through support from the CTNext Higher Education Fund. The program aims to support the preliminary validation of innovative early stage technologies from across all disciplines for early stage projects that may one day result in inventions and technologies that address unmet needs and have potential for commercial application.

The START PPOC Fund competition accepted written proposals on a quarterly basis and selections for funding were made on a review of the written proposals by a selection committee. Recipients come from UConn, the University of Bridgeport, and Southern Connecticut State University.

Congratulations to following UConn Chemistry professors for who received START PPOC funding awards!

Q2 Awardees:
Douglas Adamson, $10,000 – Electrifying and Polarizing HEPA Filters with Graphene to Improve the Efficiency of Virus Removal from Air
Alexandru Asandei, $10,000 – Controlled Radical Polymerization of Conjugated Alkenes in Water

Q3 Awardee:
Eugene Pinkhassik, $10,000 – Integration of palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions in flow processes

Q4 Awardee:
James Rusling, $10,000 – Rapid CRISP-Based Point-of-Care Detection of COVID-19 and COVID-19 Antibodies in Saliva