Joanna Crews
NASA has signed a five-year Space Act Agreement with the Institute for Local Innovations in Louisiana to promote agency-developed technology platforms to entrepreneurs and small businesses.
The agency said Monday ILI and the technology transfer office within NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center aim to help drive economic development efforts in certain U.S. regions through the partnership.
ILI will also help promote NASA systems and capabilities to the departments of business, engineering and science at historically Black colleges and universities as well as minority serving institutions.
The institute also seeks to encourage HBCU student teams to participate in ILI’s Technology Implementation Market Engine Challenge and develop marketing strategies for agency technologies that are available for licensing.
Dennis Small, manager of NASA Goddard Technology Transfer and the agency’s ILI project manager, said the TIME Challenge aims to facilitate establishment of startup businesses that could help bring new technology into the marketplace.
