Penn State’s new TechCelerator@State College won a $500,000 grant to help further the program, which is designed to help those with ideas for technological innovations turn those ideas into plans for viable businesses. According to a Penn State release, the program is expected to produce $30 million in economic benefits, with a focus on rural innovation.

“The TechCelerator Program, which has already produced dozens of success stories, provides an array of pre-launch business and market research services – or Boot Camps – designed to assist University researchers, grad students and the local tech-entrepreneurs in converting their ideas into business realities. Our goal was to stimulate and accelerate a sustainable, entrepreneurial pipeline and the model works,” said Stephen Brawley, president and CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners. 

Penn State is just one of 26 winners of the grant, which comes from the U.S. Economic Development Administration through a program that funds start-up innovation around the country. The money will go towards helping develop the TechCelerator program to keep Penn State a top research university, and help turn that research into business.

With recent developments like multi-college entrepreneurship minors and a brand new Entrepreneurship and Innovation major in the Smeal College of business, Penn State is clearly looking to position itself as top university for entrepreneurship, and this grant is expected to help greatly.

Image: Penn State