Taratec has been selected by the Technology Division of the Ohio Department of Development to perform evaluations of proposals for the 2002 Technology Action Fund, and its successors, the 2003 and the 2004 Third Frontier Action Funds. During each competition, Taratec evaluated more than 100 proposals seeking funding to develop and commercialize a variety of cutting edge technologies. Each proposal was reviewed by three independent reviewers who evaluated how well the proposal met the intent of the program, how well the research plan was designed, how realistic the budget and match were, and how beneficial the resulting commercialization activity would be for Ohio. More in-depth evaluations were conducted on the top proposals in order to arrive at a final ranking. The Department has awarded nearly $30 million to companies proposing commercialization activities involving advanced materials, information technologies, biomedical devices and therapies, electronics-instrumentation-controls, advanced manufacturing, and fuel cells. Taratec was asked to debrief the winners and runners-up by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of their proposals and encouraging them in their commercialization activities. This has resulted in the companies creating stronger proposals for subsequent competitions. Many of the winners and runners-up have been successful in winning awards from federal sources and attracting venture capital investments.
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