A South Florida lawmaker wants the state to add $30 million to a dwindling seed fund to help startup companies grow to the next level by financing their product testing.

The fund is intended to commercialize research projects at universities and research institutions, like the one by nSolgel LLC, a company co-founded by Sudipta Seal, director of the University of Central Florida NanoScience Technology Center. Seal has been researching whether he could make building material from the ash collected from the burning of coal to generate power.