FuzeHub awards $75K grants to Clarkson, Alfred State

Clarkson University and Alfred State will each use $75,000 grant awards to support projects focused on “innovation” and manufacturing.

The grants are among a total of more than $300,000 awarded to four schools, FuzeHub said in a news release.

Besides Clarkson and Alfred State, FuzeHub also awarded grant funding to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy and to Cornell University’s Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City for its laboratory of bioregenerative medicine surgery.

FuzeHub, an Albany–based nonprofit organization, helps small to medium-sized manufacturing companies in New York by matching them with technical and business resources.

Grant usage

Clarkson University will use its funding to outfit the Shipley Center for Innovation with a “whole-building,” compressed air system. The Shipley Center is an incubator for North Country businesses.

Such a system is “critical” to the operations of tenants like LC Drives, whose motor designs are “half the size and more efficient” than current “leading” motor designs. Clarkson’s Damon Hall, where the school will install the air system, is designed to house light manufacturing startups like LC Drives. It will also provide “long-term benefits” to young manufacturing companies in the region.

Alfred State will use its funding to “collaborate” with Rochester–based American Fuel Cell, a company that produces fuel cell membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs).

Alfred’s energy storage and conversion laboratory will integrate new testing capabilities that will allow for “rapid advances” in the company’s manufacturing operations.

The work will “position” the laboratory to pursue other collaborative projects with New York–based, fuel-cell companies.

American Fuel Cell expects to hire up to 10 engineers and five technicians in the next four years “with the skill set fostered by this project,” per the release.

Jeff Lawrence Fund

FuzeHub awarded the funding from the Jeff Lawrence Manufacturing Innovation Fund.

Lawrence, who died in 2015, was a top executive at the Albany–based Center for Economic Growth, the manufacturing extension partnership (MEP) center for the Capital Region, and a supporter of New York manufacturing and entrepreneurial communities.

The manufacturing-innovation fund, which was established with $1 million annually for five years, supports activities designed to “spur technology development and commercialization” across New York state.

FuzeHub is administering the fund as part of its role as the Empire State Development (ESD)-designated statewide MEP center. As part of the fund, FuzeHub offers manufacturing-innovation grants.

The grants are available to New York nonprofit organizations, including higher-education institutions, proposing “innovative” projects involving small and mid-sized manufacturers or early-stage companies, FuzeHub said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com