Tech incubator at UT, Erie Co. firm get grants

8/23/2011
BLADE STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Controlling Board Monday approved two grants totaling $1.35 million for two projects in northwest Ohio.

In Lucas County, the University of Toledo will receive a grant totaling $350,000 to help fund its Edison Technology Incubator program which assists technology-based companies in the start-up phase. Matching funds will be provided by the university and the overall monies will be used to expand the incubator program’s services to provide more training and outreach to tech start-ups.

In Erie County, Bettcher Industries, Inc., of Birmingham, a company that specializes in the design of food-processing equipment and hand tools, will get a $1 million grant to help it develop over the next 18 months five new devices for use in tissue and bone recovery, burn treatment, and other medical uses. Bettcher and its partner, Community Tissue Services, a nonprofit tissue bank that provides human tissue grafts for transplantation, will match the state grant.