Dr. Lynn Taylor, assistant professor of medicine at Brown and director of Miriam Hospital’s HIV/Viral Hepatitis Coinfection Program, will receive up to $300,000 over the next three years from the Rhode Island Foundation as the winner of a 2013 Innovation Fellowship. Taylor’s idea, “Rhode Island Defeats Hep C,” is to make the state the first to eradicate hepatitis C by scaling up awareness, testing, and the delivery of new, highly effective therapies. “At no other time in history have we had such opportunity to eradicate this harmful, costly epidemic,” she said. “Rhode Island has the optimal size epidemiologically, cooperation between stakeholders, scientific acumen, and medical establishments that make it possible to be the first state to defeat HCV.” Brown finalists in the competitive award process included Domenico Pacifici, assistant professor of engineering, whose team proposed manufacturing solar sailcloth; public affairs staff member Al Dahlberg, who offered a proposal for a statewide network of electric car recharging stations; and Dr. Lynae Brayboy, a fellow in obstetrics and gynecology, who proposed a smartphone app with sexual health information for girls.