Montana State University has been awarded a federal grant to create a public-private partnership for growing tech companies in Montana.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration announced July 23 that it had awarded $750,000 to MSU’s Prospect Montana, a newly created program to promote high-tech economic development statewide.

The three-year funding will support three complementary efforts to see high-tech companies grow across the state, said Daniel Juliano, head of MSU’s Technology Transfer Office, who applied for the grant.

The Prospect Montana program will begin this fall with a competitive request for MSU gap fund proposals. Grant funds will be awarded to three to five applicants based on the commercial potential of their technology. Roughly $400,000 will go into the new “gap fund.”