A major funder of cancer research in Texas is offering up to $3 million in seed funding to help lure startups to the Lone Star State — and keep them here.

On Monday, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas announced a new Seed Award, which will target startups trying to introduce disruptive technologies in the cancer-care market.

The institute has already doled out more than $1.9 billion to cancer research and prevention programs statewide since 2007. But the new grant is unique in that it specifically targets companies that are just getting started, an area where venture capital funds are sparse.

The goal is to move them out of the seed stage “and into the stage where the products are going to be more attractive to external investors,” said Mike Lang, chief product development officer.

The award is designed for projects that are too early in their research to be competitive for the institute’s two other product development award categories. The money could help new innovators in the cancer therapy and diagnostic tool space to become commercially viable businesses.

Eligible companies can qualify for a maximum of $3 million per project, which will be distributed over a maximum of three years. Any startup around the world can apply.

But the goal is to bring business to Texas, Lang reiterated.

“This is state of Texas taxpayer money, and by statute it has to be kept here in the state,” he said. “So these companies either need to be here already, or willing to move here upon receipt of the award.”

Eleven larger, more established research firms have relocated to Texas since 2010, when the research institute began giving out its first product development grants.

For example, biotech startup Aravive, which investigates treatments for leukemia and cancers of the ovaries and pancreas, moved from San Francisco to Houston in 2015 on a $20 million grant. Formation Biologics, which focuses on cancers of the breast, head and neck, lung and stomach, moved from Toronto to Austin in 2015 on a $12.7 million grant.

The institute is still finalizing the application for the Seed Award, which should be available in mid-May. The deadline to apply will be in August, and the awards will be announced in February.

In 2007, Texas voters agreed to give the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas $3 billion in bonds over a 10-year period, boosting the agency as the state's major funder of cancer research.

Overall, the agency can spend up to $300 million a year across all of its awards programs. Its $3 billion budget allocation will run out in 2023, unless the Legislature votes to continue it.

Some senators have started to question whether the state should continue to commit taxpayer dollars to something they say is not an essential function of state government.