The Mississippi Development Authority currently is accepting applications for Virtual Quad grants from qualified teams developing Mississippi technology ventures featuring new products or services in energy and agriculture technologies.
Teams are eligible for a maximum award of $25,000 each in the form of a voucher that may be used to receive technical assistance from a research university in Mississippi. MDA will award a total of $100,000 in the Entrepreneurs Technical Assistance Program, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy – State Energy Program. Teams receiving an ETAP grant will be paired with a relevant research university to solve specific technical challenges posed by the applicants. Teams will have up to nine months to complete their respective proposed tasks.
The goal of V-Quad is to build an innovative, virtual incubator network to support Mississippi technology ventures launched by entrepreneurs focused on energy- and agriculture-related technologies. V Quad is a public-private partnership that connects Mississippi’s research universities, industry, government and non-profits in a cohesive, tech-based entrepreneurial network.
The project also includes a consortium with MDA, Innovate Mississippi, the Institutions of Higher Learning and the four research universities: Mississippi State University, University of Mississippi, University of Southern Mississippi and Jackson State University.
The competition is open to teams of high school and college students, university or community college faculty, for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations, public-sector employees or any combination of individuals from these entities.
Examples of eligible projects include the use of clean energy and energy-efficient products and services, agricultural products and services, as well as robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, unmanned aerial and terrestrial vehicles and genomics applied within the energy and agriculture sectors.
The deadline to apply for a grant is Thursday, June 30, 2022. For more information and an application, go to https://mississippi.org/entrepreneurship/vquad/.
