Receiving a $100,000 Grant from the US Government for Research

603_ Receiving a $100,000 Grant from the US Government for Research
Every federal program with a large R&D budget has to use a percentage of their budget to fund small businesses with these SBIR Grants. That was the topic of discussion with Krista Marks, founder of Kerpoof. Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and NCWIT founding board member, along with Larry Nelson continue with the NCWIT series the Entrepreneurial Toolbox Series. This is a new interview series designed to promote fundamental skills of entrepreneurship. The series interviews both men and women about a range of topics critical to entrepreneurial success, such as networking, how to procure funding, writing a business plan, raising money and the importance of failure. The series is sponsored by the NCWIT Entrepreneurial Alliance with support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Qualcomm. Krista said, " The NSF (National Science Foundation) has many different programs aimed at advancing the cause of research and science in the United States and even internationally in some cases. SBIR stands for small business innovation research, so to qualify for an SBIR Grant you have to be a small business (fewer than 500 employees), and the grant has to be used specifically for funding research. A phase one grant is $100K and this funds the first part of that research, typically a feasibility type of analysis. The SBIR Grant is not unique to the NSF. Every federal program with a large R&D budget has to use a percentage of their budget to fund small businesses with these SBIR Grants. At the time Kerpoof wanted to do research on delivering an activity, entirely in a browser that would introduce kids to basic programming constructs and to do that in a way that is as responsive as traditional software. So we submitted an SBIR proposal and received a SBIR Phase I grant for $100,000.00 to complete that research." Krista shares a number of 'must knows'.
Related Links: Kerpoof English || Kerpoof Spanish || NCWIT Channel || SBIR Information || Entrepreneurial Toolbox || Channels:NCWIT Bytes: 15353023 - 1/12/09 LISTEN