Recognition for Innovative Startup Excellence
Doing our part.
In 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 crisis, Aurora Patents announced the RISE Award to help small businesses and inventors through the unprecedented, challenging times. Consistent with our mission to support emerging growth companies, we felt that weathering the crisis should not come at the loss of hard-fought R&D efforts.
We’re proud that the RISE Award has become an annual opportunity for Aurora Patents to support innovative startups and for startups to be recognized for their incredible, diligent efforts. We're offering a free provisional U.S. patent application or $5,000 towards a non-provisional U.S. patent application to a selected applicant. We hope that this award will continue to help provide stability and encouragement to industrious innovators.
How can the award help me? |
For the selected applicant, we will work closely with you and your team of inventors to provide one of the following: A free provisional U.S. patent application or $5,000 towards a non-provisional U.S. patent application
|
Is my business eligible? |
This award is eligible to any SMB or inventor. The only requirement is that you must have an impactful innovation that you want to share with the world. We welcome applicants from all subject matter areas and zip codes. We deeply appreciate that innovation knows no zip code boundaries.
|
What criteria are used for evaluation? |
Eligible applications will be reviewed by an internal panel based on equal weighting of the following criteria: Technology Maturity, Market Relevance, Economic Impact, Societal Impact, and Need.
|
How do I apply? |
To get started, just click the Apply button below and you will be directed to a Google form that will help collect your application information. The application is short and should take less than 30 minutes to complete. Rest assured, all information is held in the strictest of confidence.
|
What can I expect after applying? |
The application process will be open until 11:59 PM ET on June 30th, 2023. We will be diligently reviewing applications over the coming weeks and hope to make an announcement in late July. All applicants will be contacted once we make our final decision. The winner must use the award within 60 days of the announcement.
|
Looking forward to hearing from you!
If you're a member of the news media and would like to learn more, drop us a line.
2024 RISE Recipients.
A RISE'ing Tide With AquaAction
For our 2024 RISE Awards, we partnered with our good friends at AquaAction in recognizing the winners of this year's Great Lakes AquaHacking Challenge. It's impossible to overstate the importance of protecting our most important natural resource, and Aqua's HackingChallenge presents a huge opportunity to help accelerate technologies that will both improve and protect our precious water ecosystems, as well as boost the local innovation economies they touch. Given the program's focus on bolstering post-secondary students and young professionals looking for a hands-on way to apply their talents and fight the freshwater crisis, we felt like the RISE Award was a natural fit in continuing its purpose of giving Aurora a way to do our part in helping to support innovative startups in their incredible, diligent efforts toward vital missions.
As with prior years, we awarded $5,000 towards a non-provisional U.S. patent application to the first place team and two other $2,500 service-based awards to the runners-up, customized based on need. We can't say it enough, but the recipients are a truly gifted collection of entrepreneurs who will surely do great things. We couldn’t be more thrilled about the potential to be a part of their journey!
For our 2024 RISE Awards, we partnered with our good friends at AquaAction in recognizing the winners of this year's Great Lakes AquaHacking Challenge. It's impossible to overstate the importance of protecting our most important natural resource, and Aqua's HackingChallenge presents a huge opportunity to help accelerate technologies that will both improve and protect our precious water ecosystems, as well as boost the local innovation economies they touch. Given the program's focus on bolstering post-secondary students and young professionals looking for a hands-on way to apply their talents and fight the freshwater crisis, we felt like the RISE Award was a natural fit in continuing its purpose of giving Aurora a way to do our part in helping to support innovative startups in their incredible, diligent efforts toward vital missions.
As with prior years, we awarded $5,000 towards a non-provisional U.S. patent application to the first place team and two other $2,500 service-based awards to the runners-up, customized based on need. We can't say it enough, but the recipients are a truly gifted collection of entrepreneurs who will surely do great things. We couldn’t be more thrilled about the potential to be a part of their journey!
Baleena
Baleena won first place at the AquaHacking Challenge, taking home the grand seed funding prize of $20,000 from AquaAction and a $5,000 patent service-based RISE Award from Aurora. Cofounders Julia Yan and Sarah Beth Gleeson have designed microfiber-trapping filters for household washing machines, tackling microplastic pollution at its source! They are aiming to reduce microplastic pollution from synthetic clothing by empowering consumers to contribute to environmental protection with each load of laundry.
Our thought bubble. You want to talk about impact? How about being able to improve the water leaving every single washing machine in the world? Microplastics are destroying the environment and poisoning our food supply, and Baleena's incredibly innovative filter is a universal, practical, and low-cost approach to crowd-sourcing a big chunk of the solution. Beyond crafting a great product, Baleena also has two of the most impressive young entrepreneurs we've seen in a RISE class. Having a great product is not enough. You also have to have founders with the DNA to see it through to execution and market success. That is no doubt the case with Baleena. Winning the AquaHacking Challenge and the RISE Award are just two more notches on an increasingly impressive list of accomplishments for Julia and Sarah Beth that already includes this great invention, landing some major pilot partners, raising over $500,000 to-date in mostly non-dilutive funding, and earning their way onto the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 list!
>> Learn more about Baleena
Our thought bubble. You want to talk about impact? How about being able to improve the water leaving every single washing machine in the world? Microplastics are destroying the environment and poisoning our food supply, and Baleena's incredibly innovative filter is a universal, practical, and low-cost approach to crowd-sourcing a big chunk of the solution. Beyond crafting a great product, Baleena also has two of the most impressive young entrepreneurs we've seen in a RISE class. Having a great product is not enough. You also have to have founders with the DNA to see it through to execution and market success. That is no doubt the case with Baleena. Winning the AquaHacking Challenge and the RISE Award are just two more notches on an increasingly impressive list of accomplishments for Julia and Sarah Beth that already includes this great invention, landing some major pilot partners, raising over $500,000 to-date in mostly non-dilutive funding, and earning their way onto the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 list!
>> Learn more about Baleena
Wave Lumina
Wave Lumina won second place at the AquaHacking Challenge, taking home $10,000 in seed money from AquaAction and a $2,500 patent service-based RISE Award from Aurora. Wave Lumina founder Vernon LaLone has developed a portable device for swiftly detecting ultra-low levels of PFAS and other contaminants in environmental samples, revolutionizing on-site environmental assessments. Before environmental engineering firms and government response teams can clean up forever chemicals like PFAS, they need to locate them, but lab testing is currently expensive and very time consuming. Wave Lumina's device, which they're calling the Containment Field Screening Device, is a groundbreaking new product that will enable onsite total PFAS testing and screening (including PFOS and PFOA) technology with same-day results! This can save months – or even years – of time for anyone working on contamination site remediation and PFAS destruction processes.
Our thought bubble. While chemical companies and regulators SLOWLY and FINALLY begin to own up to the problem, and we work toward a broader awareness (and hopefully reduced reliance on PFAS) – identification and remediation are next up for solving this massive health crisis. Wave Lumina's device will be instrumental in tackling a problem of incredible scope with an efficient, cost-effective, and truly scalable solution. Beyond impact, we also look to recognize great humans with the RISE Award, and Vernon is simply one of the nicest, smartest, hardest-working people you'll meet. We love to see it when good people do great things!
>> Learn more about Wave Lumina
Our thought bubble. While chemical companies and regulators SLOWLY and FINALLY begin to own up to the problem, and we work toward a broader awareness (and hopefully reduced reliance on PFAS) – identification and remediation are next up for solving this massive health crisis. Wave Lumina's device will be instrumental in tackling a problem of incredible scope with an efficient, cost-effective, and truly scalable solution. Beyond impact, we also look to recognize great humans with the RISE Award, and Vernon is simply one of the nicest, smartest, hardest-working people you'll meet. We love to see it when good people do great things!
>> Learn more about Wave Lumina
Amphoral Solutions
Amphoral Solutions won third place at the AquaHacking Challenge, taking home $5,000 in seed money from AquaAction and a $2,500 patent service-based RISE Award from Aurora. Amphoral Solutions (previously Proto StLo) is developing an algal filtration technology that reduces lead concentration in industrial wastewater through powered algal extract and pH regulation. Amphoral Solutions was founded by the youngest team in the challenge – Merrick Marshall and Alejandro Poirier Corcuera, both students Champlain College St. Lawrence in Quebec!
Our thought bubble. Innovation knows no age boundaries! Merrick and Alejandro are two inspiring young inventors, well on their way to making a big impact – and that's really a sweet spot for the RISE Award. There's an unfortunate tension when it comes to patenting – and it's that you most need it when you can least afford it. This can be especially true for college students who are trying to balance innovation investment against the essentials of exorbitant tuition costs, books, room, and board. Lead presence in water is a problem domain that unfortunately hits very close to home in Michigan, so we're very happy to be helping Merrick and Alejandro protect their critical invention in any way we can.
>> Learn more about Amphoral Solutions
Our thought bubble. Innovation knows no age boundaries! Merrick and Alejandro are two inspiring young inventors, well on their way to making a big impact – and that's really a sweet spot for the RISE Award. There's an unfortunate tension when it comes to patenting – and it's that you most need it when you can least afford it. This can be especially true for college students who are trying to balance innovation investment against the essentials of exorbitant tuition costs, books, room, and board. Lead presence in water is a problem domain that unfortunately hits very close to home in Michigan, so we're very happy to be helping Merrick and Alejandro protect their critical invention in any way we can.
>> Learn more about Amphoral Solutions
Meet Past Recipients.
For a prior season podcast episode, we had a great sit down with three very innovative, up-and-coming inventors – all past recipients of the RISE award. Listen in to learn more about their companies and how the RISE Award has helped in their journeys.
Going forward.
We're firmly committed to the RISE award being an annual fixture. We love helping entrepreneurs. It's what gets us out of bed in the morning. Getting to help even more in an epically difficult time has proved to be exceptionally rewarding for us and we're certain it will prove to be such for the recipients. Please stay tuned for updates on these great companies.