We’re thrilled to announce the launch of Tool Foundry, a new, no-equity-taking, four-month accelerator designed to help you scale your open science hardware tools.
At Tool Foundry, we’re all about advancing scientific discovery tools that anyone can use. As part of the accelerator, we want to help you turn your open hardware prototypes into scalable, sustainable businesses. Support we provide:
$50,000 in non-dilutive funding per team
Hands-on technical guidance and mentorship to help you build, test, and refine your tool
A collaborative, in-person Boot Camp at Autodesk Foundation in San Francisco, CA
Connections to talent, advisors, and potential users and partners through the Tool Foundry network
Opportunities to connect with additional funders and investors at the Tool Foundry Showcase
If you have any questions (let us know how we can help you), leave us a comment below and register for our informational webinar on April 23. Apply to the accelerator by May 30, 2019 - we can’t wait to hear from you!
Hi! @amchagas is leading a project where some of us are collaborating, that aims to know more about the demand of open science hardware in order to start building responding to that demand.
As part of it we were discussing which minimum documentation should be requested from open science projects, could you give some detail of your approach to this?
But I see no mention of “Open” on the tool foundry site, instead the criteria is simply low-cost. While most Open Hardware tends to be of lower cost (as you cannot price gouge when selling Open Hardware), the important benefit is that openness allows for a design to be adapted and improved. In the same way that Google used Linux as the core of its servers not because it was cheap, but because it was open and could be modified for and adapted, this is what we want for science hardware.
If hardware is to be truly open for the community to freely modify, the design file formats being locked to expensive proprietary software is a problem. So I don’t see how an Autodesk boot camp is doing anything more than encouraging people to be less open.
Interesting call for an accelerator program with 50k support during 4 months.
“We believe low-cost, high-quality, and easy-to-use tools can expand access to science.” https://www.toolfoundry.org/
True: ‘Tool Foundry is designed for individuals over the age of 18 who are United States Citizens or legal permanent residents…’ (FAQ page)
This is a great initiative but unfortunately limited to only 1 country (out of 195). This is a global forum, so @toolfoundry could you please edit your post and clearly state this?