The Carolinas Photonics Consortium, consisting of five universities with a focus on photonics research and development, has announced that five proposals will receive seed funding aimed at commercializing their described technologies. One proposal from each — Clemson University in South Carolina, and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina State University in Raleigh, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Western Carolina University of Cullowhee, all in North Carolina — will receive $10,000 as well as business and marketing development support from the Technology, Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Initiative at North Carolina State University. The winning proposals include an integrated cooling device for high-power semiconductor lasers and a light-emissive nanocomposite fiber.