Life Science Funding Opportunity - J&J COSAT Seed Grant for North Texas

January 12, 2012

We had the opportunity to meet with Johnson & Johnson before the holidays and they are very interested in learning about life science technologies in North Texas and in turn providing exposure to the J&J mechanisms of support and funding to companies of interest.

Specifically, the Johnson & Johnson Corporate Office of Science and Technology ("COSAT" https://www.jnjcosat.com/AboutCOSAT.aspx) is an umbrella organization within Johnson & Johnson that monitors new developments in science and technology in terms of their relevance to the strategic interests of the J&J family of companies. Their interests include: medical devices, diagnostics, biotechnology, and consumer products. On a periodic basis, the emerging technologies group within COSAT organizes a day to review early stage opportunities to consider such opportunities for a non-dilutive seed grant funding program. The awardees could potentially benefit from this program in several ways:

• seed (non-dilutive) funding, which is usually capped at around $250K;  
• access to J&J's internal experts in a relevant domain; and
• enhanced visibility in the investment community by virtue of J&J's support.

Interested companies should submit a non-confidential abstract/executive summary of their start-up opportunity for COSAT's pre-screening review to Vik Thapar (vikt@ntxrcic.org) by Saturday, January 28th. Projects of strategic interest to J&J will be invited to hold a 45-50 minute non-confidential meeting individually with the COSAT reviewers in North Texas towards the end of February at NTEC (exact day TBD).  Half of this time is intended to be spent on the project presentation and half on an informal Q&A session. Your submission will also be considered by other life science investors in the region.  Should you not want this submission to be considered by other funders, let us know at time of submittal.
 
We know the North Texas community can work together to get great deal flow for this event and get some North Texas start-ups funded!