POWERBRIDGENY: A CLEANTECH PROOF-OF-CONCEPT CENTER

This article describes the establishment and operation of a consortium of two Cleantech Proof-of-Concept Centers funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. These centers aim to create an early stage lab-to-market support structure, including access to funding that will enable the development and validation of promising clean energy technologies emerging from research laboratories and ultimately lead to the formation of startup companies located in New York State. The two centers, one led by New York University in partnership with the City University of New York and the other one led by Columbia University in partnership with Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Cornell University's new New York City Applied Science campus, operate under the umbrella of a single organizational structure as PowerBridgeNY. Here we describe the motivation for the establishment of the center and summarize the various aspects of its operation through the first round of project selections since the center's inception in early 2013.