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The Lab-to-Market (L2M) subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on the Science and Technology Enterprise is launching a $325,000 prize competition to highlight successful examples of innovation ecosystems, particularly existing resources that support underserved communities or remarkable responses to the pandemic environment. There are three categories for applicants with an informational webinar scheduled for Sept. 25, before the portal opens on Sept. 30.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently rolled out a new website for the SBIR/STTR program which SBA administers. Reorganized and including new landing pages for entrepreneurs, support organizations, and federal agencies, the new page provides quicker and easier access to the right information.

SBA began offering a second round of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) on April 27, and SBA’s data indicate this round is better distributed across businesses and the states than the first. As of May 8, round two has approved $189 billion across nearly 2.6 million loans, 55 percent more than in all of round one. The average loan size in round two is $73,488, which is a significant drop from the first round’s average of $206,022. Combined, $531 billion has been distributed in 4.2 million PPP loans.

SBA released data on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) this week for all approved loan activity through April 13 and told banks Wednesday night that the program is nearly out of funds. The data show more than 1 million loans worth more than $247 million approved across all states and territories. While the average loan is $239,000, 70 percent of the loans are less than $150,000. On average, states are seeing 3.1 loans per 1,000 population and nearly $747,000 per 1,000 population. While Texas (88,434) has seen the most loans, many Great Plains states are leading in per capita terms, with North Dakota (10.8 per 1,000 population), Wyoming (9.9), Montana (9.7), Nebraska (9.6), and South Dakota (9.0) comprising the top five. State data is in the table below. Looking at NAICS subsectors, construction is receiving the most loans with nearly 14 percent of approved funds, followed by professional services and manufacturing (each at 12 percent). According to SBA data (xls), accommodations and food services accounted for nearly 20 percent of 7(a) loan (the parent program of the PPP) volume over the past three years, but are just 9 percent of the PPP approved PPP loan volume.

The third package of emergency assistance related to COVID-19 is currently making its way through Congress, having passed the Senate last night and being expected to pass the House tomorrow. The legislation includes additional emergency loans and tax credits for retaining employees, as well as near-term aid for individuals, small businesses, and some of the most affected industries. While relatively little assistance is directly relevant to science- and innovation-related business development, many broader small business provisions can still be of assistance to these companies.

The Federal and State Technology Partnership (FAST) is intended to increase innovation-based small business awareness and participation in the SBIR and STTR programs in places and populations that are underrepresented in the programs’ award portfolios.  Through FAST, the Small Business Administration (SBA) makes small, matching one-year awards to state programs on a competitive basis. The most recent class of 24 FAST winners was announced in August 2019.  First funded in 2001, FAST has become the cornerstone for funding many states’ initiatives intended to help SBIR applicants become involved in the federal SBIR/STTR programs. But does the program work?

The Senate confirmed the nomination of Jovita Carranza to become the administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) this week. During her recent confirmation hearing, Carranza was pushed on the committee’s concerns about the leadership of SBA’s Office of Innovation and Investment, which overseas both the Small Business Investment Corporation (SBIC) program and SBA’s SBIR/STTR policy office. In response, Carranza agreed to address those concerns, ensure that the SBIR/STTR office’s staff backlog is addressed, and testify before the committee within 90 days about her solutions to these issues.

Federal agencies fail, on average, 24 percent of the time to notify applicant small businesses of award decisions within required deadlines. A small business has a zero percent chance of being able to plan to start an innovation project within six months if they apply to ARPA-E (the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency) or the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, both of which never met the deadline. 

SBA’s 2019 Growth Accelerators Fund Competition winners were announced yesterday, awarding $50,000 to each of 60 organizations across the country. Special congratulations to the SSTI members, including BioSTL (BioGenerator), TechTown Detroit, Startup Junkie Foundation (Fuel), Invest Nebraska, Launch Tennessee, Innovation Works, Arrowhead Center (Sprints), and University of Illinois (EnterpriseWorks). The competition is for programs with 60 percent of funded work dedicated to supporting women, socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, and entrepreneurs in states with relatively few SBIR/STTR awards or in Opportunity Zones. SSTI held a webinar when the 2019 competition launched and will announce the 2020 round, when available, through the member-exclusive Funding Supplement.

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced 24 grants to organizations working to increase SBIR/STTR awards and commercialization outcomes in their states. The Federal and State Technology Partnership program (FAST) emphasizes initiatives focusing on underrepresented regions and entrepreneurs.