Northern Technology Grants Program
Twenty of Alaska's innovators recently received assistance in the form of cash through a new grant program which is itself innovative.
In June 1978, $50,000 in grant funds was appropriated by Alaska's state government for awarding by the Alaska Council on Science and Technology (ACST) in grants up to $5,000 each. The basic idea of this Northern Technology Grants Program is to assist innovative Alaskans who have good ideas by providing funds that can help in developing or demonstrating the ideas.
In describing how ACST managed this grant program, council executive director Christopher Noah said that the council wished to minimize the administrative costs of the program and to get money to grantees as quickly as possible. Early on, the decision was made to avoid the heavy expense of monitoring how Alaskan inventors and innovators would use any funds received. Trust would be placed in grant recipients to use money in the manner originally proposed, and each grantee would be honor-bound to report on the end results. Otherwise, the Northern Technology Grants would carry no stipulations.
Another move taken by the science and technology council to reduce administrative costs was to perform the review process in a short time. The council allowed itself only a month to review the 180 proposals received. In one sense, the task was complicated because proposal guidelines were simplified, and they stressed that proposals were to be as short as possible. Council executive director Noah indicated that this stress on briefness was expected to make proposal evaluation difficult. Still it was thought more important to avoid burdening proposers with elaborate requirements on the nature of their proposals.
Another experiment was to allow people to submit proposals on cassette tape, up to ten minutes being allowed for each proposal. Several cassette proposals were received and were transcribed in the ACST office in Juneau prior to review. The idea of allowing verbal proposals was to encourage persons who otherwise might find it difficult or awkward to propose. At least one cassette proposal led to a grant being awarded.
In the review process approximately 60 proposals were selected by reviewers as being suitable for funding. However the available money allowed awards of only 20, ranging in amounts from $200 to $5,000. Mr. Noah said that final selections were made by the council and its staff. The rapid but intensive review process utilized expert volunteers affiliated or previously affiliated with Alaska's Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, the University of Alaska and the Office of the Governor.
If the Northern Technology Grants Program continues, Mr. Noah says that he would like to involve more retired persons in the proposal review process. The knowledge and broad experience of many of these people will be a real asset to the program. Anyone interested in helping (retired or not) is encouraged to contact Christopher Noah, ACST, Pouch AV, Juneau, Alaska. The pay is poor to non-existent but the work is satisfying.
Reviewers are required to treat all proposals confidential to protect the proposers' ideas. Nevertheless, there are opportunities to discuss with other reviewers the many interesting ideas and projects proposed.
The first-round of awards went to persons with projects in a variety of areas. Among them: wintering over of bees, greenhouse design, use of waste heat, heat-saving housing construction, solar heating, automotive design, dredging machinery, water power, and better ways to transport injured persons.
