College of Charleston Receives SCRA Grant for Technology
The South Carolina Research Authority has awarded the College funding to expand its capacity for technology development and commercialization.
Through its FY24 SACT Grant Program, the South Carolina Research Authority awarded the College of Charleston $640,000 to expand its capacity for technology development and commercialization. With $84,000 in matching funds, the College will have a total of $720,000 for this project.
“This award marks a pivotal moment for the College of Charleston to bolster our technology transfer initiatives and industry collaboration efforts significantly,” says Qian Zhang, assistant professor of systems engineering, who serves as the principal investigator for the project. “It will help streamline the commercialization process and further our mission to drive innovation and economic growth through strategic partnerships.”
The initial research focus will be on delivering solutions in the critical area of global logistics. The project, titled “Advancing Innovation to Commercialization at CofC using Global Logistics as a Pilot,” will focus on increased faculty research, innovation and impactful public-private partnerships with interdisciplinary teams from the School Engineering, Computing, and Mathematics and the School of Business.
Winthrop University and MUSC’s Zucker Institute for Innovation Commercialization are working with CofC on the project. The industry partners are Mercedes Benz Vans of North Charleston, IFA Group of Ladson, Pensievision of Charleston and SouthernInno Tech, based in Charleston.
SCRA’s FY24 SACT Grant Program champions the vital role of all Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) in creating a sustainable framework for and accelerating the pace of translational/use-inspired research, technology development and commercialization.
