Could your invention be the perfect device to aid U.S. combat soldiers? Have you created a vaccine that could rid the world of a deadly disease? Have you improved upon or innovated something the world needs in the future?
All of these are real-world scenarios describing research and development projects funded by the Small Business Innovation Research program, coordinated by the U S. Small Business Administration. And all are creating needed jobs now and for the future.
The SBIR program encourages businesspeople to advance their company’s technological inventions into the commercial marketplace. It targets the small-business entrepreneurial sector since that’s where innovation and innovators thrive, but the risk and expense of conducting serious research and development for new products are often beyond entrepreneurs’ means. The SBIR funds the critical development and startup stages to encourage commercialization, which in turn stimulates the U.S. economy.
Following the submission of proposals, agencies make SBIR awards based on qualifications, degree of innovation, technical merit and future market potential. Small businesses that receive awards or grants then begin a three-phase program, most commonly covering research, testing and commercialization.
Roland Tibbetts developed SBIR as an experimental project at the National Science Foundation almost 30 years ago, and more than $21 billion worth of research has taken place in more than 15,000 small firms, producing more than 45,000 patents. Many companies in our four-state Region 7 area have received SBIR awards. Some have been awarded the prestigious national Tibbetts award for exceptional work and contributions.
Rolla-based Loki Inc. is among them. Affiliated with the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Loki leverages Jason Baird’s position as an associate professor at the explosives laboratory into explosive, propellant and pyrotechnic applications important to academic, commercial and military functions.
Baird says the company has been able to achieve “several world first results in our research.” Loki designed a barricade system for defense against blast and impact damage currently in use at 12 nuclear power generation stations, and at Sandia and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory facilities. It also developed, built and tested the first all-explosive pulsed power systems that included ferromagnetic generators, providing seed currents to helical flux-compression generators. Loki also first generated broadband microwave radiation from an all-explosive system that included a ferroelectric generator as its primary power supply.
The highly competitive SBIR program encourages small businesses to explore their potential and profit from their inventions. The thousands of small businesses that have competed for SBIR awards have enhanced defense, protected our environment, advanced health care, and improved our ability to manage information and manipulate data – paving the way for jobs of the future.
To learn more about the SBIR program and how small businesses might participate, visit
www.sba.gov/sbir.
Patricia Brown-Dixon is Region VII administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration, serving Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. She also worked for the U.S. General Services Administration for more than 25 years, with a focus on small businesses. Brown-Dixon can be reached through www.sba.gov.[[In-content Ad]]
