 If you are a small business looking for federal funding opportunities to commercialize your innovative idea, then the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program may be the opportunity you're seeking. SBIR, administered and coordinated by the U.S. Small Business Administration, awards grants to help small businesses commercialize their high-tech innovations. Since 1982, SBIR has been helping small businesses transfer their technologies and products from the laboratory to the marketplace. Ten federal agencies participate in SBIR by reserving a specific portion of their annual R&D budgets to fund the program. Along with the U.S. Department of Energy, other federal agencies that fund SBIR include the U.S. departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Transportation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. To be eligible for consideration, a small business must be U.S. owned and independently operated, for profit, employ no more than 500 people, and be the employer of its principal researcher. Each of the ten agencies that fund SBIR specifies R&D topics, accepts proposals, and makes awards based on small business qualification, degree of innovation, technical merit, and future market potential. Small businesses that receive awards or grants then begin a three-phase program:
The U.S. Department of Energy released its fiscal year 1998 SBIR solicitations on December 2, 1997. The solicitations are available on the Web at http://sbir.er.doe.gov/sbir. DOE will accept SBIR proposals until March 2, 1998. |
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