SBA to Award Grants to Innovative Small Tech Companies

Five of the World’s Most Innovative Corporate Labs

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) plans to offer grants of up to $100,000 to tech-focused, leading-edge small businesses. The program will run until 11:59 p.m. on April 11, 2014.

The grants are open to all states and territories in the U.S., but proposals must be submitted through Grants.gov.

The SBA’s Federal and State Technology (FAST) program is sponsoring the grants, and it hopes to assist firms that are disadvantaged socially or economically to participate in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

To receive a grant, the company must show in its proposal plans to support:

• Small business research and development
• Technology transfer from universities to small businesses
• Diffusion of innovation to benefit small businesses
• Mentoring for small businesses applying for SBIR grants
• Commercializing technology that is developed via SBIR grants

A panel of SBIR program managers will evaluate all proposals that are submitted. Then, the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation and the SBA itself will review the recommended proposals and select companies to be awarded grants. Each participating territory and state must also provide a degree of matching funds for each grant awarded.

According to the SBA, small businesses that are funded by SBIR provide important innovations:

Companies supported by the SBIR and STTR programs often generate some of the most important breakthroughs each year in the U.S. For example, about 25 percent of R&D Magazine’s Top 100 Innovations come from SBIR-funded small businesses.