FUNDING AND SUPPORT TO ADVANCE YOUR START-UP
The Koffman and the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnerships at Binghamton University strive to offer unique funding and support opportunities to start-ups, students, growing businesses and beyond.
The New Energy New York (NENY) Student Start-Up Experience pairs qualified clean energy start-ups with regional student interns in a variety of areas. Student’s salary stipends are covered by the program, with no cost associated for participating companies. Qualified companies must be working on a clean energy technology or service, and must be located in New York state and/or be a member of a New York incubator or relevant accelerator program.
Qualified students must be enrolled part or full-time at a university or college in New York state. Student applications are accepted based on academic semesters, with all participation hours needing to be completed by the end of that corresponding semester. The NENY Student Start-Up Experience compensates students for 120 hours of participation for 12 weeks, with no more than 10 hours per week for $2,500 total. Time commitment and corresponding salary stipend may be adjusted based on company and student availability.
Companies may request students specialized in areas including, but not limited to:
- Marketing/Outreach
- Chemistry
- Engineering
- IT
- Customer Discovery
Upon acceptance into the program, participating companies receive access to our secure database of student applicants, where they can browse resumes and choose students to interview. Companies have the option to have students work in-person, remotely or a combination of both depending on preference.
START-UP NY
Start-Up NY, a program operated by New York’s Empire State Development, helps new and expanding businesses through tax-based incentives and innovative academic partnerships. The program offers new and expanding businesses the opportunity to operate tax-free for 10 years on or near eligible university or college campuses in New York state.
By partnering with Binghamton University through this program, in addition to tax incentives, businesses gain direct access to advanced research laboratories, development resources, university technology transfer and commercialization offices, and experts in key industries.
Program Requirements:
- Be a new business in New York state, or an existing business relocating to or expanding within New York
- Partner with a university or college in New York state
- Create new jobs and contribute to the economic development of the local community
INTERESTED IN APPLYING?
INNOVATION HOT SPOT
The Innovation Hot Spot program, administered by New York state, provides funding for business incubators and tax benefits for qualifying start-ups. The Koffman Southern Tier Incubator is a member of The Southern Tier Startup Alliance, a group of six Southern Tier, NY Incubators, that became one of 10 designated Hot Spots throughout the state in 2013.
Through the program, tax benefits including five-year exemptions from state corporate income tax and state sales tax on purchases are available to qualifying start-ups.
- You must be a member of an incubator within one of the ten Hot Spots
- Create new jobs and contribute to the economic development of the local community
- Your start-up must be less than five years old or less than seven years old for life science companies
INTERESTED IN APPLYING?
empowerST FELLOWSHIP
empowerST is a first-of-its-kind energy storage fellowship, whose goal is to advance innovative research and development projects toward commercialization. The two-year program provides fellows with a salary and R&D funding, along with access to the fast-growing regional cleantech cluster for innovators seeking to bring cutting-edge energy storage technologies to market. Fellows pursue their R&D activities with technical support from Binghamton faculty and start-up mentoring from the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnerships.
Through the program fellows receive:
- Competitive annual salary, $100,000 research support funding and travel stipend
- Postdoctoral training under Nobel Laureate M. Stanley Whittingham
- Use of world-class research facilities and equipment at Binghamton University and the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator
- Start-up and commercialization mentorship and support, along with membership at the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator
Candidates should hold at least a B.S. in physical sciences or an engineering field relevant to their proposed project at the time of application. Early-stage start-ups are also welcome to apply, with preference given to those who have raised less than $5 million in private investments. Successful candidates will demonstrate an entrepreneurial mindset, leadership capabilities and technical expertise to advance their proposed technology.
Our current EmpowerST Fellows is Wentao Li of Libama Power, whose platform “Advanced Metal Anode (AMA) Technology ™ will enable dramatic improvement of lithium batteries, as well as other metal batteries, such as sodium-ion batteries, zinc batteries and aluminum batteries.” Learn more about the mission of Libama Power here.
empowerST is not currently accepting applications at this time.
