Azerbaijan National Science Foundation and U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation
Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Program
Business Partnership Program (BPP), conducted by the Azerbaijan National Science Foundation (ANSF) and funded by the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF), promotes research and development (R&D) partnerships between companies and teams of scientists (Science Teams) to develop new commercial opportunities of economic benefit to both parties.
BPP operates under the CRDF Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Program (STEP). STEP funds non-profit institutions to deliver a progressive series of scientific-business community building events. One or more STEP events in any year may be a venture conference. At the conference, selected science-business teams pitch their projects to compete for BPP grants. The BPP grants fund the scientists on the team to work with their partner company on a practical scientific-business project.
BPP projects must have R&D as their core task and must include preliminary market assessment, customer needs analysis, and business development components. Projects that demonstrate their ability to enable revenue creation and/or attract non-ANSF sources of funding will be given priority consideration in the selection process. All goals and outcomes of the projects must be defined and measurable.
