ANN ARBOR—Many medical research teams around Michigan have ideas that hold real potential to help patients and generate jobs. Some have already shown promise in early testing.

Now, there’s a new way for those teams to receive funds to get those ideas going, or get them across the “valley of death”—the stage after most funding ends and before commercial backing usually kicks in.

As of this week, they can apply for up to $30,000 to get a new idea off the ground, or up to $200,000 to help them cross the treacherous middle stage of testing a promising new drug, device or diagnostic tool. It’s the first round of funding from the new Michigan Translation and Commercialization (MTRAC) for Life Sciences Hub.

The competition is open to teams from any Michigan public university, and any nonprofit research institute or health system based in the state. With a focus on medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics and health-related information technology, it will provide kickstarter funds to early-stage ideas, and mid-stage funding for translational projects that have high potential to become commercial products.

The $4.05 million statewide MTRAC Life Sciences Hub was announced last week by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation after being approved by the Michigan Strategic Fund in July. It’s based at U-M with co-management by the U-M Medical School’s Fast Forward Medical Innovation (FFMI) Program and the U-M Office of Technology Transfer.

“Our previous three-year experience and success with the current MTRAC program at the U-M Medical School informs us that this new Hub opportunity could be a game changer in biomedical innovation for the state of Michigan,” said Dr. Kevin Ward, FFMI executive director of and co-principal investigator for the new MTRAC Life Sciences Innovation Hub.

The new hub is an extension of the existing U-M-focused MTRAC program, which launched in 2013 with $2.4 million from MEDC to foster innovation and entrepreneurship as a catalyst for economic growth.

As of April 2016, the U-M MTRAC program has funded 79 U-M projects, helped develop 13 startup companies, created 33 jobs, secured $21.4 million in follow-on funding, and licensed technology to three Michigan companies.

As with the U-M initiative, the researchers’ institution in the statewide competition is expected to contribute half of the costs of the award, with the rest coming from U-M and the Michigan Strategic Fund.

Full information and secure application forms are available at myumi.ch/LRABq for new ideas, and myumi.ch/JNQEV for ideas that have already shown promise. The deadlines for the first round of funding are December 31 and September 26, respectively.