SB Informer
Wednesday, August 2, 2006; 05:25 AM
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has
awarded $116 million in grants to small businesses for innovative
research that will help meet the department’s diverse energy,
environmental, science and national security missions. The awards were
made under the department’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.
“High-technology
small companies, many of whom started in business as a result of SBIR
and STTR awards, have become a valuable resource for solving high risk,
high technology problems. Solving these problems will continue to be
essential to meeting the nation’s current and future energy
challenges,” said Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, DOE Under Secretary for
Science.
The research projects are in 49 technical topic areas
ranging from developing new sensors that monitor the electric
transmission grid and help reduce blackouts to developing
ground-penetrating radar in order to see contaminated groundwater and
help clean up pollution.
One hundred ninety-three companies in
33 states were selected to receive a total of 291 Phase I grants worth
up to $100,000 each to explore the feasibility of their proposed
innovation.
The department also selected 113 SBIR projects and
15 STTR projects for Phase II awards to continue their research and
development effort. The SBIR Phase II awards average $719,000 each and
the STTR awards average $750,000 each for a period of up to two years.
The
winning projects were selected from among 1,387 Phase I grant
applications and 253 SBIR/STTR Phase II grant applications. This year’s
Phase II winners were among the successful Phase I winners in last
fiscal year’s SBIR/STTR competition.
The SBIR and STTR programs
are U.S. government programs where federal agencies with large research
and development budgets set aside a small fraction of their funding for
competitions among small businesses only. Small businesses that win
awards in these programs keep the rights to any technology developed
and are encouraged to commercialize the technology. The SBIR and STTR
programs are very similar, except in the STTR program the small
business must collaborate with a non-profit research institution. The
Office of Science administers the programs for DOE.
The list of companies receiving grants and their research projects may be found at www.science.doe.gov/sbir.
Other News by This Company National Small Business Conference to Be Held in Research Triangle Park, NC - March 6, 2007 NASA Selects 287 Small Business Research and Tech Projects - November 20, 2006 |