Delaware Innovation Space announces a nationwide advisory council

The Delaware Innovation Space (DIS) in Wilmington has a lot to offer entrepreneurs in the sciences, including its First Fund program for science startups, with awards up to $75,000 in DIS funding to young startups in the areas of healthcare, industrial biotechnology, advanced materials, nutrition, renewable energy and chemical ingredients.

You can now add this to the list of DIS resources: its recently announced Entrepreneurial Advisory Council (EAC) with experts from all over the country, representing universities, labs, companies and investment ventures.

Here’s the foundational class of the EAC:

• Saeed Amidi 
  Founder and CEO, Plug and Play Tech Center and Ventures 
  Partner, Amidzad Ventures 
• Michael Burychka 
  Founder and CEO, IP Group, Inc. 
• John Carlisle 
  Director, Chain Reaction Innovations at Argonne National Lab 
• Vanessa Z. Chan 
  Professor of Material Science & Engineering and Innovation & Entrepreneurship at University of Pennsylvania
  Partner, Robin Hood Ventures 
• Frederick (Rick) Jones 
  Partner at BioAdvance 
• Cheryl Martin 
  Founder, Harwich Partners 
  Former Director, ARPA-E 
• Purnesh Seegopaul
  General Partner, Pangaea Ventures 
• Ben Solomon 
  Founder and Managing Partner, FedTech 
• Robert Urban 
  Former/Retired Global Head, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, LLC 
• Andrea Wesser-Brawner 
  Senior VP of Strategy and Partnerships, International Business Innovation Association

“I am excited to partner with the EAC and their diverse wisdom and perspectives to enable the Delaware Innovation Space to provide the best home for science entrepreneurs and their startups,” said Bill Provine, CEO of the Delaware Innovation Space, in a press statement. “Our goal at the Innovation Space is to rapidly accelerate science-based startups to market years earlier than otherwise would be achieved.”