How To Get Government Funds Into Your Tech Startup
By Tom Foremski - March 10, 2009
VCs have little spare capital to invest in new startups and are concentrating on their current portfolio companies. But some startups could qualify for various government programs.
A good example is the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants, and the Small Business Technology Transfer (SBTT) grants from five agencies: Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, National Security Agency, and NASA. The first phase funding is $100,000 and second phase funding is even better at $750,000 per grant.
Maureen Farrell at Forbes has written a good article on this topic. How To Get Uncle Sam To Fund Your Start-Up - Forbes.com
While just 13% of Phase 1 proposals are accepted, the hit rate for Phase 2 apps jumps to roughly 45%, estimates John Mills, director of the SBIR assistance program in Georgia.
If you want to bag SBIR funding, you'd better be able to communicate precisely how the research is going to lead to a salable product. "Most entrepreneurs we work with find it's a challenge to discuss how their technology is commercialized," says Mills.
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March 10, 2009 | Permalink | Comment | Subscribe to SVW
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Comments (2)
For those interested in opportunities in the EU, there are ample funding opportunities in Brussels for media and cultural projects - many with a web focus and there's 50 billion euro in the kitty with ample for SME's.
A good place to start is here.
According to a business partner and friend from Belgium, there are seasoned experts in the grant labyrinth in Brussels in funding acquisition who help SME's get EU funds with no money up front, but rather a cut if successful. I don't have exact details on the services but one company I worked with out of Leiden found who used such an intermediary found themselves with over a million in dev funding for educational 3D products.
Posted: March 18, 2009 11:07 AM
Some more links for EU Grant sources for SME's and other businesses
EU GRANT DIRECTIVE - Hand in Hand: Technologies and Content - seven year, €755m MEDIA 2007 programme (2007-2013)
EU GRANT DIRECTIVE - Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) - The total budget for FP7 is 51 Billion euro over 7 years
EU GRANT DIRECTIVE - Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program - budget of € 2.17 billion for the overall period of 2007-201
Posted: March 18, 2009 2:47 PM