January 29, 2009
Wyoming SBIR/STTR
Initiative (WSSI) Newsletter
No. 1-09
(Past Newsletter Issues)
This Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative (WSSI) Newsletter is available in its entirety at http://www.uwyo.edu/sbir/newsletter/nwsltr_090129.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., 2/1/09; 3 days – submit to
WSSI@uwyo.edu
NSF STTR Grants - due 2/25/09; 27 days
DoD STTR 2009.A- due 3/25/09;
55 days
HHS/NIH SBIR & STTR Grants– due 4/5/09; 66 days
DOT SBIR Contracts Pre-release 2/16/09– due 5/1/09; 92 days
2009 SBIR/STTR SOLICITATION RELEASE SCHEDULE – All Agencies;
Courtesy of ZYN Systems at
www.zyn.com
1.0 No Phase 0 Awards Made in January
2.0 Six
Wyoming Small Businesses Awarded $2.3 Million in 2008
3.0 Gro-Biz Federal Procurement Conference - Cody - Feb.18-19
4.0 Inside the $825 Billion Stimulus
Package - TBED Opportunities
5.0 SBIR - A Victim of Recovery Myopia?
6.0 Start-Ups
Critical for Job Creation
7.0 Entrepreneurial Predictions for 2009
8.0 Acknowledgements and Publication Information
1.0 No Phase 0 Awards Made in January
NO PHASE 0 PROPOSALS WERE SUBMITTED TO THE WSSI IN JANUARY. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THIS HAS OCCURRED SINCE OUR UNIQUE PROGRAM WAS INITIATED IN 1998. FUNDS ARE NOW AVAILABLE TO SUPPORT BOTH PHASE I AND PHASE II SBIR PROPOSAL PREPARATION. THIS ADDITIONAL SUPPORT HAS BEEN MADE AVAILABLE BY THE WYOMING BUSINESS COUNCIL. IF WE DON’T USE IT, WE WILL LOSE IT - PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSALS ON FEBRUARY 1, 2009.
2.0 Six Wyoming Small businesses receive a total of $2,314,00 in SBIR awards in 2008
Wyoming small businesses received six Phase I and two Phase II SBIR awards in 2008, for a total of $2,314,000. The Six Companies are Alces Technology, Jackson; Firehole Technologies, Laramie, Kennon Covers, Sheridan, Square One Systems Design, Jackson; Wyoming Silicon, Sheridan; Z4 Energy Systems, Laramie. Congratulations to our award winners.
3.0 GRO-biz federal procurement conference in Cody - February 18-19
U.S. Senator Mike Enzi is a champion for small businesses! Senator Enzi and his staff have been co-sponsors for the Annual GRO-Biz Procurement Conference for seven years and will provide the Welcoming address on February 18, 2009. In the past, Senator Enzi has visited individually with small businesses. This is a rare opportunity to speak with Senator Enzi and with the more than 40 federal procurement representatives who will be attending the 2009 conference.
The GRO-Biz Annual Conference will be held February 18 & 19, 2009 at the Holiday Inn in Cody, WY. Pre-conference workshops will be held on February 17.
For more information or to register for this event, visit www.gro-biz.com
4.0 LOOK INSIDE THE $825 Billion Stimulus package – mANY OPPORTUNITIES FOR TECH-BASED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (SSTI DIGEST)
A party-line vote may be all the President can get as the House of Representatives is poised to vote on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 (ARRA). That vote would be enough, though, to advance the $825 billion plan into the Senate, which is considering its own version of the bill this week.
While some changes are being proposed to the House version of the bill to accommodate interests of some Republicans, those measures directly affecting economic development goals of local and state TBED practitioners appear secure.
There has been considerable debate as to how fast ARRA funds can move through the federal, state and local bureaucracies before it is transformed into real projects and programs, but most agree the funding has to be approved by Congress before the clock even starts ticking on how quickly the economy feels its impact.
ARRA is enormous but here are some of the TBED-supporting measures included in the 647-page legislation as passed by the House Appropriations Committee (the full text is available at: http://www.rules.house.gov/111/LegText/111_hr1_text.pdf).
Department of Agriculture
- Rural Community Facilities Program -$100 million
- Rural Business Program -$100 million, including $13 million for the Rural Business Enterprise Grant program to "encourage the development of small and emerging private business enterprises" and $87 million for business and industry guaranteed loans.
- Rural Broadband Infrastructure Development - $2.825 billion. Funding will be "strongly oriented towards grants to provide the maximum incentive for providing broadband in unserved areas."
Department of Commerce
- Economic Development Administration - additional $250 million (more than doubling the amount of funding available in FY09 for local and regional economic development projects, which have included research park infrastructure and incubator/accelerator facilities, as well as community improvement projects.
- Manufacturing Extension Partnership - $30 million
- Technology Innovation Program - $70 million for new grants
- State Broadband Data and Development Grants - $350 million for competitive grants to develop and implement statewide initiatives to identify and track the adoption and availability of broadband services.
- Wireless Broadband Development for Unserved and Underserved Areas -$2.825 billion for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to subsidize deployment of broadband and wireless. Grantees must "adhere to open access principles."
NASA
- Science funding - $400 million for earth science/climate research missions, total solar irradiance sensor, and a thermal infrared sensor for the Landsat Continuing Mapper.
- Aeronautics - $150 million for investments in environmentally-friendly or green aviation, supersonic testbeds, and development of aerospace systems and technologies.
National Science Foundation
- Research and Related Activities - $2.5 billion to restore the NSF funding rate for proposals to pre-2000 levels. Includes $300 million for the Major Research Instrumentation program and $200 million to restart its facilities program that supports physical and other sciences and engineering.
- Education and Human Resources - $100 million, including $60 million for the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarships to encourage more STEM majors to pursue K-12 teaching careers and $40 million for the Math & Science Partnerships, also targeted to K-12 STEM education.
Department of Defense
- Defense Energy Research - $350 million for research, development, test and evaluation projects for improvements in energy generation, transmission, regulation, storage and use on military installations from alternative and renewable energy sources.
Department of Energy
- Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Research, Development, Demonstration and Deployment - $2 billion including $800 million for biomass projects, $400 million for geothermal activities and projects and $800 million for base program activities.
- Industrial Energy Efficiency - $500 million for a waste energy recovery incentive program.
- Grants to Institutional Entities for Energy Sustainability and Efficiency - $1 billion to identify, design and implement sustainable energy infrastructure projects and grants for energy efficiency innovative technologies. Institutions include higher education, public schools, local governments and municipal utilities. An additional $500 million would be available for loan guarantees.
- Energy Efficiency & Conservation Block Grants - $3.5 billion for state and local governments to implement strategies to reduce fossil fuel emissions and reduce total energy use.
- State Energy Program - $3.4 billion as grants to states and direct funding to state energy offices to address energy priorities and adopt emerging renewable energy technologies.
- Alternative Fueled Pilot Grant Program - $400 million to establish a grant program to encourage, through 30 projects, the use of plug-in electric vehicles or other emerging electric vehicle technologies.
- Advanced Battery Manufacturing - $1 billion in grants for facility funding to support U.S. manufacturing of advanced vehicle batteries. An additional $1 billion would be available for the Advanced Battery Loan Guarantee program.
- Renewable Energy and Transmission Loan Guarantee - $8 billion for a new, temporary loan program to provide loan guarantees for proven renewable energy technologies and transmission technologies. Available through Sep. 30, 2011.
- Smart Grid Investment Program - $4.5 billion for R&D, pilot projects and matching funds for the program.
- Fossil Energy - $2.4 billion for demonstration of carbon capture and sequestration technology demonstration projects.
- Science - $2 billion, including $400 million for ARPA-E, the new Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy to support high-risk, high-payoff research.
Small Business Administration
- Small Business Capital Availability - $430 million for credit subsidy costs and administration of new loan guarantee and direct lending authorities, including guarantees of up to 95 percent of small business loans and refinancing community development loans, and simplifies maximum leverage limits of Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs).
Environmental Protection Agency
- Brownfields - $100 million to capitalize revolving loan funds and provide low-interest loans, job training grants, and technical assistance to local governments and non-profit organizations.
Department of Health and Human Services
- University Research Facilities - $1.5 billion for competitive grants by the National Institutes of Health, limited to renovations and repair rather than new construction.
- NIH Research - $1.5 billion for both competitive grants and intramural research within the Institutes.
- Comparative Effectiveness Research - $1.1 billion for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
- Health Information Technology - $2 billion to jumpstart investment in health information technology through the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in the HHS Secretary's Office.
- Pandemic Flu, Biomedical Advanced Research & Development, and Cyber Security - $900 million for preparation and research and advanced development of major threats to public health.
Department of Education
- Education Technology - $1.0 billion through the Enhancing Education through Technology program that supports state, district and school efforts to integrate technology into curricula.
- Pell Grants - $15.636 billion to increase the discretionary maximum Pell grant by $500.
- K-12 Repair and Modernization - $14 billion for school modernization, renovation and repair based on FY08 Title 1 Education allocations.
- Higher Education Repair and Modernization - $6 billion for university/college modernization, renovation and repair based on a formula in proportion to the State's share of full-time equivalent undergraduate students.
Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Community Development Block Grants - $1 billion to be distributed through existing formula.
5.0 SBIR - A VICTIM OF RECOVERY MYOPIA? (ssti dIGEST)
The proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), released last week by the House Appropriations Committee, would dramatically increase federal funding for research in several agencies required to participate in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. The National Science Foundation alone, for example, would receive an additional $3 billion - equal to 50 percent of its FY08 appropriations. The Department of Energy would get a $2 billion research injection; the National Institutes of Health, a cool $1.5 billion for R&D. The SBIR program requires the research agencies to award 2.5 percent of their extramural R&D funds to small businesses. So it would seem small tech firms fighting for funds in the highly competitive SBIR arena could see a windfall in the coming months as a result of a Recovery Act. That is, if the 25-year-old SBIR program itself is extended past its current expiration in March 2009. The SBIR program was to sunset Sept. 30 last year as Congress had yet to pass a Reauthorization Act that both chambers could accept and former President Bush would not veto. The program received a reprieve until March 20 by way of the Continuing Resolution that is currently keeping the federal government in business.
With the economy continuing to nosedive and less than six weeks remaining until expiration of one of the most successful federal tools for supporting technology commercialization and innovation, some analysts expected SBIR would be an easy target for immediate attention by its authorizing committees in the House or Senate. Perhaps, for no other reason than to keep the direct capital injections of nearly $2 billion flowing into the nation's small tech firms at the same time other capital sources are running dry. Instead, no action is readily visible, or being discussed through traditional SBIR news sources, such as Rick Shindell's SBIR Insider or the Small Business Technology Council.
The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship appears yet to have opened its doors in 2009 under the new leadership of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA). The committee's website, for example, has only one update since December. Separately, on Jan. 8, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), a member of the committee, introduced S. 177 to extend SBIR and its companion STTR program until 2022 and increase the SBIR set -aside to 10 percent by 2012. That bill was read twice and referred to the committee, which has yet to hold its first hearing.
The House Committee on Small Business, still led by Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), held a hearing on Jan. 14 with the promising title, ""The State of the Small Business Economy and Identifying Policies to Promote an Economic Recovery." The focus and witness list - dominated by representatives of electrical, general and roofing contractor associations and chambers of commerce - only touched lightly on innovation. No SBIR-related legislation has been introduced in the House yet for the 111th Congress. SBIR Reauthorization during the 110th Congress was contentious and dragged out because of proposed changes to the program. The time remaining in the program's current authorization does not permit a debate of similar length in the new Congress without another extension.
6.0 START-UPS CRITICAL FOR JOB CREATION (nde news)
In the midst of record unemployment, a new Kauffman Foundation-funded U.S. Census Bureau study suggests that the answer to economic recovery lies within startup companies. The Business Dynamic Statistics (BDS) indicate that without job creation from new firms, the U.S. net employment growth rate is negative on average.
"Job growth is essential for our economy to rebound, and this study shows that new firms have historically been an important source of new jobs in the United States," said Robert E. Litan, vice president of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation, which funded the BDS. "Our research into the early years of business formation consistently shows how vital new firms are to our economy, and this data should give policymakers and budding entrepreneurs alike great hope for how we can solve our current crisis-create and grow jobs through entrepreneurship."
This report is the first of three study briefs to be released that highlight BDS data; the next reports will be released later in January and February 2009.
7.0 ENTREPRENEURIAL PREDICTIONS FOR 2009 (NDE NEWS)
A new report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) points to strengthening ties between universities and industry as the key to promoting an “innovation ecosystem” in the US. The report, University-Private Sector Research Partnerships in the Innovation Ecosystem, calls for continued Federal government support of basic research while long-term economic and regulatory changes are made to help tap into increasing research capacity in university labs. Among the recommendations called for: updating and enhancing the R&D tax credit; developing guidance on intellectual property and technology-transfer practices; evaluating the impact and scalability of open innovation models; and, developing tools and metrics to guide policies and incentive structures. The Council submitted its report to the current administration and noted that a document is being prepared for the transition team of President-elect Barack Obama.
Download University-Private Sector Research Partnerships in the Innovation Ecosystem, by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
8.0 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.
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