An endowed gift of $205,000 from Claude Laval III will award up to $10,000 annually to Fresno State faculty and students who are focused on activities that support innovation and technology commercialization. The Claude C. Laval III Award for Commercialization of Research, Innovation and Creativity will support Fresno State students and faculty whose scholarly and interdisciplinary activities are focused on commercialization of intellectual property, research, innovation and creativity.

The award is open to all full-time, tenured or probationary members of the faculty, and to full-time undergraduate and graduate students. Awards will be granted to one or more recipients each academic year.

“I am pleased to make funds annually available to Fresno State students and faculty to begin to commercialize their inventions, research and interdisciplinary ideas,” said Laval. “In the past there were many great innovations developed on the campus that never reached the market because there wasn't money available to help commercialize them. This gift begins to correct that.”

“This award will allow our faculty and students to begin bridging the gap between their academic innovations and the commercial application in the marketplace,” said Interim Provost Xuanning Fu. “The award can support the building of prototypes, completion of market feasibility studies, patent applications, etc.”

The call for proposals is now available for faculty and students. Proposals will be reviewed in May by an interdisciplinary leadership committee representing engineering, business, agriculture, science and mathematics and awards are expected to be announced prior to the end of the spring 2021 semester.

Laval is a partner in the Launch Pad, Laval Underground Surveys and several other private companies. He was instrumental in the creation and development of the Water and Energy Technology (WET) Center at Fresno State, which helps ventures grow healthy businesses starting from innovative ideas to commercially-viable products and services.

For more information about the research awards, contact Dr. Ram Nunna, dean of the Lyles College of Engineering, at rnunna@csufresno.edu.