At 03:47 PM 5/16/96 +0000, you wrote:
>Can anyone recommend a good source (on-line, commercial databases,
>publications, etc.) for tracking businesses/companies as potential funding
>resources?  I am getting more and more questions from researchers as to
>which non-private organizations might provide extramural funding for
>projects - perhaps as partnerships.  I also have medical faculty who want to
>link with pharmaceuticals for clinical trials.
>

>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>Ellen Beck
>Sponsored Research
>Phone: (310) 825-4526
>Fax: (310) 206-4996
>Email: xxxxxx@ocga.ucla.edu
>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>
Ellen

Your Technology transfer office should be able to assist with this
information.  UCLA should have an excellent setup.  The key is finding
investment capital for the riskiest area of research, academic research
rather than applied.

There are a number of Venture Capital firms listed in Pratt's Directory and
the leading corporations in the particular field that you are seeking
funding is often willing to disucss participation.  The difficulty with
getting a non-private firm interested at the initial stage is that the
opportunities are usually not presented in a business and marketing format
(or marketed well to the potential investors) that will give them the
confidence required to take the proposal seriously.  For some research,
funding can be obtained from trade associations or charitable institutions
that have been founded for a specific purpose such as the Muscular Dystropy
Foundation.  It varies by application and scope of the research.

The National Labs are facing the same problems and attempting to mesh the
research orientation with the expectations of the marketplace with mixed
results.  They have gravitated toward an arrangement with outside
individuals or groups like myself who can organize and present a plan which
shows commercial opportunity and can be marketed as a proprietary
opportunity for initial funding.  Their target audience comes in a variety
of sizes with small startup companies funding small projects and companies
such as Abbott and Lilly looking for global investment opportunities that
will exceed $400 million in sales.

If the research is ready to be commercialized then there are two or three
places on the Internet that will be seeking investment opportunities but the
groups on these forums usually try to stay away from academic research for
the sake of research only. It doesn't sound as if your programs are near
that stage of commercialization however.

Good luck and if you get any additional answers I'd appreciate being being
copied.

Best regards,

Bill Metzger