Perhaps you could
call it a fermentation tank instead of a “Shark Tank” owing to Dr. Pearse
Lyons’ billion-dollar business built around yeast fermentation: Dr. Lyons
announced today the formation of the Lyons’ Den Innovation Fund. This fund,
personally endowed by Dr. Lyons, president and founder of Alltech, will award
up to $500,000 annually to entrepreneurial projects of interest.
The fund will be open
to applicants with projects that would have direct economic impact on Kentucky
and Ireland and be related to the food, beverage or agriculture sectors.
Winners will be determined through a series of workshops and international
panel interviews. They will be selected based on the economic viability of
their projects, and the amount awarded to each project chosen will be at the
discretion of Lyons and the judging panel.
The Lyons’ Den Fund
is a direct outcome of the Alltech Innovation Competition, which attracted six
university business teams in Ireland and eight university business teams in
Kentucky in this, its second year.
 |
| Pictured from left: Ryan Cash; Bridget Kueber; Matt Long; Brittany Moneymaker; Wyatt Taylor; Dr. Pearse Lyons, president and founder of Alltech. |
“Thirty-four years
ago, I founded Alltech in my home with $10,000 and everything I had. Today that
risk and investment has grown into a $1 billion business in 128 countries,”
said Dr. Lyons. “From our Innovation Competition, it is clear that curiosity
and ingenuity are alive and well in Kentucky and Ireland, and now we have the
opportunity through the Lyons’ Den Innovation Fund to empower people to make
their ideas a reality and oil these regions’ economic engines. The bottom line
of this fund is the creation of jobs.”
The Alltech
Innovation Competition, the parent program spawning the Lyons’ Den Innovation
Fund, was initially conceived by Dr. Lyons as a means of inspiring students to
innovation and entrepreneurship while contributing to solutions for the
socioeconomic challenges in Eastern Kentucky.
Due to the success of
that first Alltech Innovation Competition in January 2013, Lyons began a sister
competition in Ireland and made both competitions an annual event. Winning
ideas to date have included a plan for reclaiming mountaintops with switchgrass
that could be used for fuel; a Field Buddy app that would give farmers access
to GPS technology while fertilizing their fields; a personal device that would
detect poisonous gasses from slurry; and a FuturFry deep fryer that would save
restaurants 40 percent on annual cooking oil costs.
“If we could fund three,
four, five projects per year, what kind of impact could that have on Kentucky
and Ireland? How many jobs could be created? The impact could be staggering and
life-changing. It’s all about asking ‘What if?’,” said Dr. Lyons.
The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine GFMT which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.
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