I-FAST Looking to Help Entrepreneurs

The USDA is accepting applications through September 8^th for their Innovations in Food and Agricultural Science and Technology or I-FAST competition.

National Institute of Food and Agriculture Director Sonny Ramaswamy said those that are selected as winners of the competition can get a lot of help.

“We’re going to be investing $400,000 this go round. Essentially it provides $50,000 to each institution to go through this boot camp itself.”

Two of the four winners last year that won the money and went through the boot camp, have already developed companies for their inventions to transform them into commercial products.

What’s involved in the boot camp? Ramaswamy said it’s comprehensive.

“We partner with the National Science Foundation. The boot camp is really intense hands-on learning for these scientists to go through understanding how might you take an invention or a discovery and translate that into creating a small company. Where do you get venture capital from? How do you create a business plan?”

For more information, visit the competition website.