Robert Keynton, Ph.D.

The University of Louisville’s entrepreneurial ecosystem just got a boost in funding and status.
U of L has received a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to commercialize research. The three-year grant names the university as an Innovation Corps Site, known as I-Corps, a designation only 35 other universities hold.

"We’ve been engaged in innovation for a while at the university and trying to translate our ideas into commercialized products," said Robert Keynton, the principal investigator on the I-Corps grant. He also is chairman of the Speed School’s department of bioengineering and the Lutz Endowed Chair for biomechanical devices. Van Clouse, director of the Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship, is a co-principal on the grant.

Keynton said the grant allows the university to fund and train entrepreneurial teams to develop technology and bring it to market. It will fund 30 projects a year.
The grant comes on the heels of another innovation award the university landed last week. The National Institutes of Health awarded the university $3 million to commercialize products developed by biomedical researchers at the university. The grant, called Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub, or REACH, has been matched by the university for a total of $6.1 million.