MIT.nano has announced a new pilot program, START.nano, to support hard-tech ventures in their early stages. Seven companies with nanoscale technologies at the core of their business have been accepted to the program.
For 2021, the primary benefit for the START.nano participants will be discounted access to MIT.nano’s cleanrooms, characterization tools, and other laboratories. MIT.nano’s staff will use the pilot year to explore with the companies what programmatic support START.nano can incorporate to boost the success of hard-tech ventures.
“Hard-tech startups typically spend their first few years and first few million dollars just to create the facilities they need to develop their technology,” says Vladimir Bulović, faculty director of MIT.nano and the Fariborz Maseeh Professor of Emerging Technologies at MIT. “The premise of START.nano is that early access to MIT.nano’s state-of-the-art laboratories can minimize the cost of launching a nascent idea, helping increase the survival rate of promising companies and potentially shortening the time it takes for their innovations to reach the market.”
Source: “MIT.nano launches START.nano accelerator”, MIT.nano