Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation

The Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation (KSEF) was created under the Kentucky Innovation Act of 2000 to invest in research and development (R&D) activity to promote innovation, new product development and commercialization, and to build a pipeline of new ideas and technologies that could add value to the scientific and economic growth in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. To this end, KSEF manages four funding programs:

• Research and Development Excellence Program (RDE) - RDE's target is achieving excellence in science and engineering in Kentucky, allowing innovation and technology development in existing and emerging areas of research, by making proactive investments through a peer-reviewed competitive selection process. RDE Award Recipients
  
  
• Kentucky Commercialization Fund Program (KCF) - KCF supports efforts made by faculty in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to commercialize a technology, product, or process that they have developed but not yet licensed. KCF Award Recipients
  
  
• Kentucky SBIR/STTR Phase Zero and Phase Double Zero Program (PZ/DZ) - PZ/DZ funding is earmarked for Kentucky-based Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR), specifically for the development of Federal Phase I and Phase II proposals. PZ/DZ Award Recipients
  
  
• Kentucky SBIR/STTR Matching Funds Program - Kentucky Matching Funds Grants are for additional work tasks and activities that support and are complementary to Federal Phase I or Federal Phase II Awards. KY SBIR/STTR Matching Funds Award Recipients
  

KSEF also manages the Kentucky SBIR/STTR Resource Center - helping Kentucky innovators, entrepreneurs, and technology-oriented small businesses (i.e. 500 or fewer people) who have an innovative concept and need to advance it, translate it into a product or a technology for commercialization, and profit from it through SBIR/STTR.

Since program inception, the return on investment is 12:1 for RDE, 19:1 for PZ/DZ, and 3.6:2 for KY SBIR/STTR Matching. Read more about KSEF's economic impact. These four funding programs support ideas and technologies within five research focus areas: (1) Biosciences, (2) Environmental and Energy Technologies, (3) Human Health and Development, (4) Information Technology and Communications, and (5) Materials Science and Advanced Manufacturing.

KSEF - Advancing R&D, New Product Development,
and Commercialization in Kentucky
and Your Partner in Kentucky SBIR/STTR

An initiative of the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation (KSTC), KSEF is managed in partnership with the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE). KSTC is a private nonprofit enterprise founded in 1987 to enhance capacity of people, firms and organizations, to use science and technology and to effectively compete in the global market place.