The Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council is distributing $1.5 million in grants this fiscal year to bolster research at local companies and universities.

Unlike the investments by the Slater Technology Fund, a taxpayer-backed source of venture capital, the advisory council does not take equity shares in the companies it supports.

But advocates say the program benefits taxpayers by promoting useful discoveries that can be marketed commercially, helping to build new companies and create jobs.

"These grants are a real engine primer. All of these ideas have commercial applications,” said...Donald Stanford, the former chief technology officer at GTECH Holdings Corp.