February 25, 2008
Wyoming SBIR/STTR
Initiative (WSSI) Newsletter
No. 03-08
(Past Newsletter Issues)
This Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative (WSSI) Newsletter is available in its entirety at http://www.uwyo.edu/sbir/newsletter/nwsltr_080225.htm.
It is published by the Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative (WSSI). Please visit our website at www.uwyo.edu/sbir for complete program information (including links to participating federal agencies, support agencies, conferences, archives of this newsletter, etc.) Contact WSSI@uwyo.edu to be added to or removed from the Distribution List for this newsletter.
SOLICITATION COUNTDOWN
WSSI Phase 0:
due
5:00 p.m., 3/1/08; 5 days – submit to
WSSI@uwyo.edu Firehole Technologies, Laramie Square One Systems Design, Inc., Jackson WyoBiGen, Laramie
The current SBIR program Congressional authorization expires on September 30,
2008. The latest SBIR Insider newsletter, published by Rick Shindell of ZYN
Systems www.zyn.com features the alarming
warning that the SBIR program reauthorization may be a victim of a Congress with
too many election-year distractions to get around to dealing with this
critically important legislation. Wyoming’s SBIR client base must rally to the
cause, and has available an important avenue to bring pressure to bear on the
U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship – our Senator Enzi is
an influential member of this committee and needs to hear from all of us on this
important issue. Send your concerns and comments to Travis Jordan
travis_jordan@enzi.senate.gov,
Enzi’s Washington office staffer for small business issues.
DoD STTR
Contracts: due 3/19/08 - 24 days
HHS/NIH 2008
SBIR/STTR Grants: due 4/5/08 - 41 days
DOT: To Be Released
3/14/08; due 5/1/08 - 67 days
EPA: To Be Released 3/12/08;
due 5/14/08 - 80 days
NSF: To Be
Released 3/10/08; due 6/10/08 - 107 days
2007 SBIR/STTR
SOLICITATION RELEASE SCHEDULE – All Agencies; Courtesy of ZYN Systems at
www.zyn.com
CONTENT
1.0 Congratulations To Our February Phase 0 Award Winners
2.0 SBIR Program At Great Risk of Not Being Reauthorized
3.0 SBIR Reform Debate Begins
4.0 Utah Increases Entrepreneur Fund to $300 Million
5.0 VCs Navigate Carnage Scenario With
Green Tech
6.0 Tracking Innovation in the American
Economy
7.0 Ethanol: More Harm Than Good?
8.0 Come Home to Kansas Initiative Seeks to Lure Back High Tech
Workers
9.0 Venture Capital: Is It Right For You?
10. New Jersey Incubators Struggle to Keep Companies in State
11. Acknowledgements and Publication Information
1.0
Congratulations to our February phase 0 award winners
Principal Investigator: Jared Stack
Email: stackj@fireholetech.com
Phase 0 Title: Initial Failure Prediction of Hybrid Composites using
Multicontinuum Technology
Phase I Target: Air Force
Principal Investigator: Robert Viola
Email: viola@sqr-1.com
Phase 0 Title: An Automated Workcell for Malaria Diagnosis
Phase I Target: DoD-Army
Principal Investigator: Randy Lewis & Justin Jones
Email: silk@uwyo.edu and jajones@uwyo.edu
Phase 0 Title: Validation of Protein biomarkers for prion diseases
Phase I Target: DoD-Army2.0
SBIR Program AT Great Risk of Not Being Reauthorized
For further info, go to
http://www.zyn.com/sbir/insider/sb-insider02-11-08.htm
3.0 SBIR Reform Debate Begins NDE News
For years, the Small Business Investment Research (SBIR) program has been a
key component in ensuring that entrepreneurs can provide critical products,
services and technologies to America’s government agencies. This year, the
program, which requires Federal agencies to set aside a portion of R&D funds for
contracts with small business, is up for reauthorization. Last week, the House
Committee on Small Business held its first hearings on the future of SBIR. While
the debate has just begun, Congress will be reviewing many different aspects of
the SBIR program. Key points of debate include:
• Should program funding and individual project sizes be increased?
• Should the program fund companies that are owned by venture capital investors?
• How can participating firms be assisted to more effectively enter new
commercial markets?
• How can Federal agencies encourage more entrepreneurs to participate in the
program?
Last week’s hearings were the beginning of what should be an interesting Capitol
Hill debate on the future of SBIR and the role of small companies in the Federal
R&D enterprise.
View testimony from the January 29, 2008, House Committee on Small Business
Hearings on
“SBIR: America’s National Technology Development Incubator.”
Watch video highlights on
YouTube
4.0 Utah increases Entrepreneur fund to $300 million NASVF NETNEWS
The Utah Fund of Funds
(Utah FoF), a major economic development program created by the Utah Legislature
to provide the state’s entrepreneurs with access to a broad array of quality
funding sources, has announced that recent legislation, Senate Bill 11,
Substitute I, has expanded the program by $200 million – from $100 million to
$300 million. Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman is expected to sign the bill into
law next month:
Utah Business Magazine
5.0 VCs navigate carnage scenario with green tech NASVF NetNEWS
Over the past four years, venture capitalists
have tossed huge amounts of cash at "green-tech" startups. The green, er, field
has become saturated with speculative funding, rivaling even the two mainstays
of Valley vulture capitalists: IT and life sciences. What was once the domain of
well meaning, but ultimately dirt poor entrepreneurs is oh so hot right now.
Some predict green tech funding will even out pace internet startup funding in
2008:
The
Register
6.0 tracking innovation in the American economy NASVF NetNEWS
The US Department of
Commerce reports upon its conclusions of definitions and methods for measuring
innovation. The definition of innovation agreed upon:
"The design, invention, development and/or implementation of new or altered
products, services, processes, systems, original structures or business models
for the purpose of creating new value for the customers and financial returns
for the firm."
7.0 ethanol: more harm than good? NASVF NetNEWS
Renewable fuels such as ethanol have
long been hailed as a cleaner-burning alternative to fossil fuels and a potent
way to reduce the climate-changing gases pumped out of car tailpipes. The 2007
Energy Act signed by President Bush last December doubles the nation's use of
corn-based ethanol. Ethanol production in Minnesota, a pioneer of the
technology, is expected to double during the next three years. But research by
Minnesota scientists is challenging the underpinnings of the biofuel rush.
Ethanol and similar products may do more harm than good because of the changes
they bring to the landscape, some scientists say:
Minneapolis Star
Tribune
8.0 come home to Kansas initiative seeks to lure back high tech workers NASVF NetNEWS
Kansas leaders want
scientists and high-tech workers who once wrote off career prospects in their
home state to take another look. A burgeoning cluster of bioscience and other
high-tech ventures ranging from startups to established corporations such as
Garmin and Perceptive Software are actively seeking top talent:
Kansas City Star
9.0 venture capital: is it right for you? NASVF NetNEWS
Not every company is a candidate for venture capital. Outside equity, whether
from family, friends, so called "angels," or institutional investors like
venture capitalists, always has strings attached. If your company is a lifestyle
business or one in which the main goal is to generate personal income, or if it
is a company that you would like to pass along to family members, then outside
equity probably isn't your best choice:
Carlsbad Current-Argus
10.0 New Jersey incubators struggle to keep companies in state NASVF NetNEWS
Business incubators are “a way of
increasing the chance of success for small companies,” says Michel Bitritto,
president of the New Jersey Business Incubation Network, a Newark-based
consortium of 14 business incubators recognized by the state’s Commission on
Science and Technology. Out-of-state investors, however, are posing a threat by
snapping up promising young New Jersey companies. Many venture capitalists
invest in startups, but then require the companies to relocate in order to be
more closely managed, Bitritto explained. At the EDC, nearly 40 percent of
incubator graduates that have received funding from venture capital or angel
investors in the past two years have moved out of the state:
NJ Biz.Com
11.0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND PUBLICATION INFORMATION
TO BE ADDED
TO OR REMOVED FROM THE DISTRIBUTION LIST FOR THIS NEWSLETTER, SEND NAME,
ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER, AND EMAIL ADDRESS TO WSSI@uwyo.edu
This newsletter is published monthly as part of the Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative
(WSSI). The mission of the Initiative is to increase the number of federal Small
Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer
(STTR) Program awards to Wyoming. The Wyoming Business Council (WBC) funds the
initiative which is administered by the University of Wyoming Research Office.
Please contact Gene Watson ewatson@wyoming.com with your comments.
END