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The Lemelson Foundation is an American 501(c)(3) private foundation. It was started in 1993 by Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife Dorothy. The foundation held total net assets of US$444,124,049 at the end of 2020 and US$484,432,021(equivalent to $544,696,007 in 2023) at the end of 2021. [1] The Foundation seeks to harness the power of invention and innovation to accelerate climate action and improve lives around the world. [2]
Jerome H. Lemelson based the foundation on his personal beliefs about the role of invention and inventors in the US economy. He believed that invention and innovation were keys to American economic success and dynamism. [3] As a young inventor, Lemelson conceived of the idea of a foundation that would support and celebrate independent inventors. He organized the foundation as a resource for young inventors to support them with funding, connections to role models, and training that would give emerging inventors the ability to develop, refine, and take their inventions to market. [4]
In 1993, Jerome, his wife Dorothy, and his sons and their families established the Lemelson Foundation. A memorial video produced after Lemelson's death includes this statement he made in 1996: "I have had a substantial amount of success in the last five years licensing my patents, and I feel I have an obligation to plow back a portion of the income I made to improve the lot of the inventor in America, and to improve the future economy of this country." [5] During the 1990s, the foundation granted to a small group of grantees, including the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [4] More recently the foundation has granted to a wider variety of organizations in the United States and the developing world.
After Lemelson died in 1997, the foundation expanded its funding from programs in the US to include developing countries. In 2003, the foundation hired its first executive director and expanded its programs to support young inventors around the world and focus on economic development in poor countries. Dorothy Lemelson, Lemelson's widow and president of the foundation, stated that "this new direction as an expansion of her husband's original vision." [6] She explained, "All his life, Jerry wanted to celebrate American invention. He felt it was what made this country strong. Now it's time to turn to the rest of the world and see what we can do for them." [6]
Based in Portland, Oregon, the foundation has donated or committed over $300 million to support education, invention, innovation, and climate action. [7] In addition to supporting programs that assist inventors and supporting science and technology education in the U.S., the foundation broadened its mission to include fostering technological innovation that drives economic and social improvements in developing countries. [8]
The foundation developed a framework called "Impact Inventing" to define its funding strategy. Impact inventing is based on three key concepts:
The Lemelson Foundation works in both the U.S. and in developing countries. Stated programmatic strategies involve creating an ecosystem where inventors and their innovations are supported from start to finish: from conception to full, self-sustaining enterprise. The foundation is focused on the development of inventions that rethink impact – projects. Examples include sanitation systems for the developing world, locally adapted medical devices, and efficient, affordable sources of renewable energy. The foundation has a special focus on its home state of Oregon through the Oregon MESA [9] program and other investments. [7]
Here are some of their active grantees:
Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. Housed within the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, the Lemelson Center aims to document, interpret, and disseminate information about invention and innovation. The Center encourages inventive creativity in young people, and fosters an appreciation for the central role of invention and innovation in the history of the United States. [10] It features invention-oriented exhibitions (currently Change Your Game); Spark!Lab, a hands-on invention workshop for children and families; and Inventive Minds, a gallery highlighting the invention documentation work done by the Lemelson Center.
The Lemelson Center also hosts Innovative Lives, an in-person and virtual event series where inventors are invited to share their stories and offer insights into the invention ideation, development, and distribution process. [11] The center provides free curricular material to classrooms throughout the United States; organizes traveling museum exhibitions (such as "Invention at Play"); provides research opportunities and fellowships for scholars; and finds, obtains, and processes archival collections related to invention on behalf of the museum's Archives Center. These collections consist of the papers and materials documenting the work of American inventors. [10]
The Lemelson-MIT Program. The Lemelson-MIT Program promotes the work of individual inventors through annual awards and competitions. It sponsors Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams, which provide direct support to high school teams of young inventors. [12] The program provides funding for MIT faculty and students to work on inventions for the developing world. The program also offers resources to guide inventors in the development and marketing of their work, such as the Inventor Handbook. [13] [14] [15]
Oregon MESA. The MESA Schools Program in Oregon is based at Portland State University. MESA teaches STEM, invention, and contemporary skills to historically underrepresented students. The program works within schools in grades 6–12, engaging students in math, engineering, science and technology projects. The program is free, offered to students in their schools, and has a family involvement component. MESA students work in teams throughout the school year to identify, design, and build prototypes that attempt to solve an issue for a designated client or population. Each year, the program culminates in MESA Day — the state competition for the MESA Schools Program — where students compete by testing and demonstrating their engineering projects. The winning team goes on to MESA USA's national competition for students participating in MESA across the country. [16]
VentureWell. Formerly known as The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), VentureWell is a higher education network that focuses on invention and entrepreneurship and their relation to commercially viable businesses. For over 25 years, VentureWell has worked to support, train, and foster networks to ensure the next generation of science and technology innovators realize – and maximize – their potential in bringing their ideas to impact. [17] VentureWell has supported over 6,000 early-stage innovators and helped launch 4,200+ ventures that have raised more than $6 billion in public and private investments. These ventures have reached millions of people in 51 countries with technological advancements in fields such as biotechnology, healthcare, sustainable energy and materials, and solutions for low-resource settings. [18] Ventures launched through the program include Sanergy (hygienic sanitation systems in Africa) [19] and Ecovative Design (environmentally friendly packaging). [20]
Villgro. Villgro, an India-based organization, supports social entrepreneurship and incubation in rural India. The organization provides seed funding, mentoring, and coaching. [21] As of 2024, Villgro has funded over 387 enterprises — 82 of which are women-led — created over 8,000 jobs, and estimated its impact, in terms of providing local adapted technologies in rural India, to over 20.8 million people. [22] The program supported Biosense, a medical engineering and design form working to change diagnostics; [23] Promethean Power Systems, which redesigns refrigeration systems for off-grid areas and other regions with electrical challenges; [24] and OneBreath, affordable ventilators for impoverished areas to address the high rate of respiratory illness in India. [25]
SELCO Incubation Lab. SELCO is a social enterprise that provides sustainable energy solutions and services to low income populations. SELCO Incubation Lab was established in 2009 to provide "new clean and sustainable technologies for the rural poor other than lighting." The lab is located at the SDM Institute of Technology, Ujire, Karnataka, India. In addition to developing new technology, the lab also serves as an incubation space for entrepreneurs—helping inventors with their independently owned enterprises. Part of SELCO's work involves building up a supply and demand chain for renewable energy—from manufacturing to design to fulfillment and sales. [26]
Design for the Other 90%. This 2007 exhibition, produced by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, focused on the design movement to develop cost-effective ways to increase access to food and water, energy, education, healthcare, transportation and revenue-generating activities low income areas in the developing world. The "90%" in the name refers to the percentage of the world population they consider to be under-resourced. [27]
Gearbox. Gearbox is the first open makerspace for design and prototyping in Kenya. Members have access to the space to work together on projects that combine hardware and software, share ideas and skills, and develop a community of inventors working on computer technology, industrial art, robotics, and electronics. Gearbox provides design tools and rapid prototyping equipment (3D printers, 3D scanners, laser cutters, industrial sewing machines, vinyl cutters, engineering tools, and equipment for electronics creation and testing). An in-house store and in-house product designers provide additional resources to the public. [28] The Lemelson Foundation was one of Gearbox's first funders. According to Lemelson Foundation Executive Director Carol Dahl, Gearbox "will provide a much-needed space for inventors to talk, build, test, and ultimately take their ideas to market." [29]
The Lemelson-MIT Program Prizes As part of the Lemelson-MIT Program, The Lemelson Foundation previously supported an annual $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize and a series of graduate and undergraduate Lemelson-MIT National Collegiate Student Prizes in the amounts of $10,000 and $15,000.
The Lemelson RAMPs (Recognition and Mentoring Programs). RAMPs identified inventors at the economic "base of the pyramid" and provided mentoring and funding as they formulated enterprises and products. The RAMPs program began as a partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Rural Innovation Network in India, and then expanded to sites in Indonesia and Peru. RAMPs provided funding to inventors to develop and bring to market inventions that address basic human needs, improved the quality of life among the world's poor, and support innovations in sustainable development. [30] While the foundation no longer uses the term RAMPS, in some cases it continues to support the work that came out of these enterprises through partner organizations in India, Indonesia, and Peru (including Villgro). [31]
Innovators supported through RAMPs include:
Technology Dissemination projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The foundation made exploratory grants in developing countries "to support invention education, develop specific technologies, and to disseminate new technology products in communities. Such projects included support for solar lighting, irrigation technologies, and neonatal devices." [31] Funded organizations included:
NESsT Peru. NESsT works in Argentina, Brazil, Hungary, Peru, Poland, and Romania to support sustainable social enterprises that solve social problems. The organization supports social enterprises in scaling their businesses, and works on a portfolio-based model. [36] The program, launched in 2007, provides financing and technical assistance to low-income individuals. Enterprises include agricultural businesses designed to help small farmers, a coding and personal development program for young women to bring them into the tech sector, and a solar power company that offers high-quality portable solar lamps and kits at accessible prices, among others. As a long-term incubator which support business for 5 to 7 years, the program emphases evaluation, reporting, business planning and strategy. [37]
The Lemelson–MIT Program awards several prizes yearly to inventors in the United States. The largest is the Lemelson–MIT Prize which was endowed in 1994 by Jerome H. Lemelson, funded by the Lemelson Foundation, and is administered through the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The winner receives $500,000, making it the largest cash prize for invention in the U.S.
Jerome "Jerry" Hal Lemelson was an American engineer, inventor, and patent holder. Several of his inventions relate to warehouses, industrial robots, cordless telephones, fax machines, videocassette recorders, camcorders, and the magnetic tape drive. Lemelson's 605 patents made him one of the most prolific inventors in American history.
The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center is a historical museum in Washington, D.C. It collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is the original Star-Spangled Banner. The museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution and located on the National Mall at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW in Washington, D.C.
Wilson Greatbatch was an American engineer and pioneering inventor. He held more than 325 patents and was a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Lemelson–MIT Prize and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (1990).
Intellectual Ventures is an American private equity company that centers on the development and licensing of intellectual property. Intellectual Ventures is one of the top-five owners of U.S. patents, as of 2011. Its business model focuses on buying patents and aggregating those patents into a large patent portfolio and licensing these patents to third parties. The company has been described as the country's largest and most notorious patent trolling company, the ultimate patent troll, and the most hated company in tech.
A business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services, starting with management training and office space, and ending with venture capital financing. The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) defines business incubators as a catalyst tool for either regional or national economic development. NBIA categorizes its members' incubators by the following five incubator types: academic institutions; non-profit development corporations; for-profit property development ventures; venture capital firms, and a combination of the above.
James McLurkin is a Senior Hardware Engineer at Google. Previously, he was an engineering assistant professor at Rice University specializing in swarm robotics. In 2005, he appeared on an episode of PBS' Nova and is a winner of the 2003 Lemelson-MIT Prize.
Ashok Gadgil Is the Andrew and Virginia Rudd Family Foundation Distinguished Chair and Professor of Safe Water and Sanitation at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Faculty Senior Scientist and has served as director of the Energy and Environmental Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Amy Smith is an American inventor, educator, and founder of the MIT D-Lab and senior lecturer of mechanical engineering at MIT.
Mária Telkes was a Hungarian-American biophysicist, engineer, and inventor who worked on solar energy technologies.
Daniel John DiLorenzo is a medical device entrepreneur and physician-scientist. He is the inventor of several technologies for the treatment of neurological disease and is the founder of several companies which are developing technologies to treat epilepsy and other medical diseases and improve the quality of life of afflicted patients.
Meredith Charles "Flash" Gourdine was an American athlete, engineer and physicist. His nickname, "Flash" Gourdine, is a reference to comic strip character Flash Gordon.
The Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR) is a technology-based economic development agency funded by the state of Utah. The organization works to develop ideas and research into marketable products and successful companies through its competitive grant and entrepreneur support programs. USTAR facilitates the diversification of the state’s tech economy, increases private follow-on investment, and supports the creation of technology-based start-up firms, higher-paying jobs and additional business activity leading to a statewide expansion of Utah’s tax base.
Ecovative Design LLC is a materials company headquartered in Green Island, New York, that provides sustainable alternatives to plastics and polystyrene foams for packaging, building materials and other applications by using mushroom technology.
Harvard Innovation Labs (i-Lab) is an institution which aims to promote team-based and entrepreneurial activities among Harvard students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and members of the Allston and Greater Boston communities.
Ramesh Raskar is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology associate professor and head of the MIT Media Lab's Camera Culture research group. Previously he worked as a senior research scientist at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) during 2002 to 2008. He holds 132 patents in computer vision, computational health, sensors and imaging. He received the $500K Lemelson–MIT Prize in 2016. The prize money will be used for launching REDX.io, a group platform for co-innovation in Artificial Intelligence. He is well known for inventing EyeNetra, EyeCatra and EyeSelfie, Femto-photography and his TED talk for cameras to see around corners.
The INOTEK Foundation, a not-for-profit organization based in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was founded in 2008 by Indonesians Sandiaga Salahudin Uno and Arief Surowidjojo. Inotek facilitates the development and dissemination of innovative technologies through invention-based enterprises.
Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), formerly known as Technopark TBI, is a state-level agency under the Government of Kerala, India, dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship and incubation activities. Established primarily to manage the Technology Business Incubator (TBI), a startup accelerator, KSUM aims to cultivate a conducive environment for high-technology-based businesses.
CIIE.CO is an Indian startup accelerator and incubator that supports early-stage startups located at IIM Ahmedabad in Ahmedabad, India. It was founded in 2002 to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in India. It is a Center of excellence set up at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad with support from the Government of India's Department of Science and Technology and the Government of Gujarat.
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