Research Foundation For The State University Of New York

In 2015, the Long Island Regional Council identified the biotechnology sector as the top regional economic priority with the greatest potential for long-term growth. Long Island’s location quotient for the biotechnology industry is 2.12, meaning that the concentration of biotechnology activity on Long Island is more than twice the national average. The i6 Challenge is led by the Center for Biotechnology, a New York State Center for Advanced Technology located at Stony Brook University, Long Island, NY. It constitutes a public-private partnership comprised of the region’s four academic research institutions, united under the Long Island Bioscience Hub, a National Institutes of Health-designated Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub, federal and state agencies state agencies (SBA, Empire State Development, NYSTAR); economic development organizations (Long Island Regional Council, Accelerate Long Island); and private industry to address specific gaps in the regional bioscience ecosystem.

Leveraging these resources, the Center for Biotechnology will cultivate bioentrepreneurial talent in the Long Island region, and significantly increase the region’s ability to secure resources of the SBIR/STTR program to help applicant companies reach commercially relevant value inflection points. NIH-focused SBIR/STTR workshops are provided to increase awareness of the resource among the region's life sciences community. One-on-one counseling is offered on a competitive basis to support proposal development. The Center for Biotechnology provides team mentoring to entrepreneurs to foster company formation around technologies emerging from our pipeline, and use the STTR program as the first round of funding for commercial development. In so doing, we develop “investable” entrepreneurs and ventures, help emerging bioscience companies “bridge the gap” between proof of concept and true commercialization, and increase the number and success of companies emerging from the Center for Biotechnology pipeline. This latter goal will contribute to the critical mass of companies that are required to attract the sustained interest of strategic partners and investors. Ultimately, the i6 Challenge award will contribute to the growth of a vibrant bioscience industry cluster in the region.