BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Any burgeoning technology community needs funding, all the funding it can get.
In Birmingham, the majority of that research funding comes from various grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), but it doesn’t come easy.
Alabama Launchpad (a project of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama) and the Birmingham Business Alliance have teamed-up to offer a workshop for researchers all over Alabama to secure a piece of the $2 billion awarded annually to qualified applicants all over the country.
The workshop is part of a larger EDPA project: the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Assistance Program, which seeks to increase the amount of SBIR/STTR funding coming into the state.
Go and register for the Birmingham workshop here.
The State of Alabama receives more than $40 million from the programs each year, which goes to fund all of the scientific research happening all over the state. But we need more, and the EDPA wants to help companies navigate the notoriously difficult application process.
“We want to help more Alabama companies take advantage of the federal SBIR/STTR program that can help drive innovation for small businesses,” said Greg Sheek, director of Alabama Launchpad programs “This workshop offers resources that can help companies with grant writing and getting their products to market.”
This workshop, in particular, focuses on grants coming from the NIH.
The funds are awarded to help businesses and researchers take the necessary (and often costly) steps towards commercializing their products.
Steven Ceulemans, vice president of innovation and technology at the Birmingham Business Alliance, and whom I wrote about yesterday, said that the awarding of these funds stimulates economic growth in the region.
“The Launchpad SBIR workshops, especially those targeting NIH, provide an excellent resource to help the innovators in our community compete for funding and bring their life-saving technologies closer to market.”
Now if we can just get the State of Alabama to match the funds like Kentucky does. But we’ll talk about that later.
The workshop is a week from today on Thursday, September 4th at the BBA offices, 505 20th Street North, Suite 200. Check in is at 8:30am and the workshop is all day, from 9am-4pm.
The cost is only $50 for Alabama participants and $100 if you’re coming from out-of-state.
Go and register for the Birmingham workshop here.
Go and read about SBIR/STTR funding here.
Go check out Alabama Launchpad and the EDPA.
#bhamtech
August 28, 2014
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