In September, San Diego will be one of the stops for a national outreach effort undertaken by federal agencies to make small businesses more aware of the funding opportunities for which they may be eligible. The industry group BIOCOM and UC San Diego Office of Innovation and Commercialization will host the San Diego leg of the SBIR Road Tour.
Date: Monday, September 11
Time: 8am - 4pm
Location: Illumina Theater, The Alexandria, 10996 Torreyana Road, San Diego, CA 92121
Tickets: $20 per person
The SBIR Road Tour aims to convey what it calls "non-dilutive technology funding opportunity" provided by federal agencies through two programs: the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) pograms. Federal and state program managers representing $2.5 billion in early stage funding have been invited to present at a series of events to technology entrepreneurs and innovation supporters from across the United States. This event is a coveted opportunity for those involved in advanced technology communities, including women-owned and minority-owned firms.
While the majority of people attending the workshop will be from small technology companies, including corporate executives, innovators and entrepreneurs, the event is also open to university researchers who can benefit from SBIR/STTR grants via partnerships to undertake research in collaboration with small technology businesses. University researchers cannot apply for SBIR/STTR grants directly, only in partnership with a small business.
Both businesses and university researchers however can benefit from this opportunity to hear directly from federal agency program managers, and from meeting one-on-one with program decision makers (and for university researchers to network with small businesses in the San Diego region that may need a campus partner to carry out critical research that may be at the core of an SBIR/STTR grant proposal.