Researchers at Cornell are recipients of the first round of seed money that promises to turn research discoveries into marketable products. Two examples: the world's first hand-held sprayer for concentrated pesticides and microbe-loaded "engineered biofurniture" that processes toxic fumes.

By partnering business with universities, the Metropolitan Development Association's (MDA) Essential New York Initiative, whose Grants for Growth program is providing the seed grants, hopes to improve business competitiveness, create jobs and help transition more of central New York's economy toward knowledge and technology.

The new program, made possible through a $1 million grant secured by New York state Sen. John A. DeFrancisco (R-50th Dist.), offers matching funds up to $50,000 for partnerships between companies and regional universities. Cornell, Clarkson and Syracuse universities were among the first recipients of the grants, which were announced this winter. The deadline for a second round of funding is April 28.

More on those two innovative products:

The sprayer -- The Fountainhead Group, a New York Mills-based company that competes for the $100 million market in garden-sprayer technology, is leveraging a combined $45,000 to create the first sprayer to simplify the handling of concentrated pesticides, particularly the filling of hand-held sprayers, said Andrew Landers, an agricultural engineer in the entomology department at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva (NYSAES), who is working with the company.

The niche market for the sprayer will be small-scale horticulturalists and home or public park garden enthusiasts, some of the Fountainhead Group's biggest customers. Some of the company's better-known products are marketed through the Ortho, RoundUp and Black Flag labels.

The collaboration's product could create up to 65 new jobs over 18 months, generate up to $10 million in revenue and could help the company net four to six new design or process patents over the next year.

Biofiltration -- Anthony Hay, associate professor of microbiology and soil ecotoxicology at Cornell, is working with Syracuse's Triad Technologies Inc. to develop a biofiltration system that reduces or eliminates indoor volatile organic compounds and odors in and around industrial facilities. Styrene, for example, is an odiferous and toxic air contaminant commonly released during the fiberglass manufacturing process.

"Right now, the solution for pollution is dilution," said Hay, noting that this common practice annoys neighbors and can be costly in utilities use. A recent innovation combines waist-high cartridges containing hungry microbes, small low-wattage fans and such common workplace equipment as tables, benches and dividing walls.

Such "engineered biofurniture" serves as portable, 24-hour air-cleansing biofiltration systems that capture fumes -- such as the toxic by-product styrene -- close to the source and lowers emissions levels well below federal standards. The system builds on Hay's earlier research funded by Triad, the New York State Center for Advanced Technology and Cornell's Center for Life Science Enterprises. This recent grant, which leverages $31,000 from the MDA with $86,023 in matching funds and in-kind services from Triad and Cornell, will allow Hay to monitor the shop floor, create protocols that meet federal guidelines and give Triad real-time data that demonstrates the invention's effectiveness.

The technology would benefit the fiberglass and plastics-coating industries as well as nail salons seeking to reduce their acetone fumes. The innovation could generate nearly 60 new jobs and revenue of $1 million for Triad within the next two years, plus the potential of up to five new patents.

The Grants for Growth program focuses on the 12-county region that includes Cayuga, Cortland, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, Seneca, St. Lawrence and Tompkins counties. According to the association, the winning projects could generate more than 154 new high-value jobs, over $16 million in new revenue and help create two new start-up companies in the region.