AAPT.org - American Association of Physics Teachers

Venture Fund

The Venture Fund is a resource for AAPT members, created to promote the development and marketing of innovative teaching products and services for physics and other sciences.

Guidelines

  • The Venture Fund will not support salaries of permanent staff.
  • The Venture Fund will not pay indirect costs.
  • The Venture Fund will not provide long term (more than 18 months) support for any project.
  • The Venture Fund normally provides one project no more than $25,000 in total support.
  • The Venture Fund focuses on assuring a marketable product and its timely availability to the teaching community.
  • The Venture Fund is not an alternative to funds from federal agencies such as NSF, which typically do not provide funds to bring products from the research and development stage to the teaching market.

Allocation of Proceeds
Proceeds from the sales of developed products or services will be allocated as follows:

1. The Venture Fund will be reimbursed for its initial allocations to the project.
2. One-third of the remaining proceeds will be assigned to the AAPT Venture Fund.
3. Another third of the remaining proceeds will be allocated to AAPT general purposes.
4. The last third will be allocated to the person who, or organization which, created the project.

To Apply
Applications will be reviewed by the AAPT Venture Fund Review Committee. The applicant must be a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers. This member must submit a project proposal with a budget to the Treasurer of the Association. The proposal shall consist of the following:

1. A purpose statement.
2. A description of the services or products to be marketed.
3. The names and professional credentials of the individuals involved in the project.
4. The project timeline.
5. The product budget.

Send applications to Paul W. Zitzewitz, AAPT Treasurer, c/o Beth Cunningham, AAPT, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3845; or email to mailto:bcunningham@aapt.org.