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Small Business Innovation Research Award Breakfast Celebrates Achievement, Promotes Technology Commercialization in Connecticut Connecticut SBIR Office honors 65 companies that have captured $47 million in federal R&D grants and related commercial contracts
Rocky Hill, Conn., July 28, 2010 - The Connecticut SBIR Office, an initiative of Connecticut Innovations (CI), yesterday honored the 65 Connecticut companies that won 2009 federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards with a celebration at the Inn at Middletown. The federal SBIR program provides more than $2 billion in competitive federal research and development grants each year to small, high-tech, innovative businesses throughout the U.S.
oan McDonald, chair of Connecticut Innovations and commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, was the keynote speaker. “If you were to ask me what I like most about SBIR, it would have to be that it is the one program that not only asks for cutting-edge ideas, it demands them, funds them and creates jobs,” McDonald said. “SBIR is working for Connecticut.”
Deb Santy, director of the Connecticut SBIR Office, thanked Sikorsky Innovations for sponsoring the event and provided metrics showing the state is continuing to bring in substantial federal dollars. Santy recapped, “This year 65 Connecticut companies have won 134 awards collectively, totaling $31 million in Phase I and Phase II awards.”
Santy added, “When you consider that the goal of the SBIR program is to fund innovative ideas, test and develop them into prototypes, and finally generate Phase III, or commercial, revenue, this program lives up to its promise. I am pleased to report that the award winners we surveyed in the state generated $16 million in revenue for 2009. As they continue to commercialize their new technology products, they will generate revenue that will impact their bottom lines in 2010 and beyond. The ongoing revenue generation and job creation that results from this program demonstrates the real success of SBIR.”
Many Phase III successes arise through partnerships between SBIR companies and other companies or organizations. Sikorsky Innovations, launched earlier this year by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. of Stratford, Conn., is an example of an organization that is receptive to partnering with SBIR participants in order to conduct research and product development of mutual interest. Sikorsky Aircraft is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).
“As Sikorsky Innovations works to demonstrate solutions to the toughest problems in vertical flight, we are seeing high value in our relationships with the small innovative companies in the SBIR program,” said Chris Van Buiten, director, Sikorsky Innovations. “It is a win-win situation in which we can help the small company succeed and grow while they improve the competitiveness of Sikorsky Aircraft by helping us break through tough barriers like doubling the speed of helicopters, or enabling optionally piloted aircraft.”
Two companies were recognized by standing ovations – M Cubed Technologies Inc., of Monroe, Conn., and Precision Combustion Inc., of North Haven, Conn. – for winning this year’s Army SBIR Achievement Award. In a field of over 400 candidates, only 11 companies received this award – and an unprecedented 18 percent of the winners were Connecticut companies.
Click here for a photograph of some of the award winners.
About the Connecticut SBIR Office
The Connecticut SBIR Office helps high-tech small businesses and entrepreneurs compete for and win federal SBIR/STTR awards. The office facilitates commercialization by collaborating with industry, government and academia.
The federal SBIR program provides $2 billion in competitive federal research and development grants each year to small, high-tech, innovative businesses throughout the U.S. The SBIR program is funded by 11 federal agencies including Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, NASA and the National Science Foundation, among others. SBIR funding is aimed at supporting cutting-edge research and development that is useful to the participating federal agencies and will ultimately be commercialized, benefitting government or private sector customers.
For more information, please visit www.ctinnovations.com/sbir.
About Connecticut Innovations, Inc.
Connecticut Innovations (CI) is a quasi-public organization dedicated to driving a vibrant, entrepreneurial, technology-based economy in Connecticut. CI stimulates high-tech growth by investing in: early-stage Connecticut technology companies, university/industry research collaborations, technology transfer, and clean energy initiatives through the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. CI also fosters collaboration among government, business, nonprofit and academic organizations to advance technology growth and promotes public policies consistent with CI’s mission. For more information on CI, please visit www.ctinnovations.com.
