Area innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers and small technology firms are invited to take advantage of a special opportunity to hear directly from federal agency program managers and meet one-on-one with program decision makers at Wichita State University.
WSU Ventures hosts the SBIR Road Tour from 7:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Thursday, June 30, on the second floor of the Rhatigan Student Center.
The SBIR Road Tour is a national outreach effort to convey the nondilutive technology funding opportunity provided through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. Federal and state program managers representing $2.5 billion in early stage funding have been invited to present at a series of events to technology entrepreneurs and innovation supporters from across the country.
Last year, the SBIR Road Tour event in Wichita was attended by more than 160 innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers and small technology firms – the largest road tour attendance to date.
William Carey, president of ARC Technology LLC, an engineering consulting firm in Whitewater, Kansas, attended the SBIR Road Tour event in Wichita last year. He said the event was a good opportunity to meet some of the agency directors and get a ”feel for their heartbeat.”
“I would especially recommend this event to companies working on new technologies or that have internally developed innovative processes that could very well be solutions to some of the problems the agencies are facing,” Carey said.
Carey said the event helped him connect with local resources such as WSU Ventures, the Kansas Small Business Development Center and like-minded entrepreneurs.
Agencies represented at the event include:
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- U.S. Navy
- U.S Air Force
- Missile Defense Agency
- Department of Energy
- Department of Health and Human Services
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
- Environmental Protection Agency
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- National Institute of Standards and Technology
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Registration for the SBIR Road Tour at Wichita State is available online at www.wichita.edu/sbirroadtour. Registration is $25 for the general public and $5 for WSU students. Following registration, attendees will be contacted with a web link to sign up for one-on-one meetings with the federal agency program managers.
Those attending the SBIR Road Tour should also consider attending a free prep session co-sponsored by WSU Ventures and the Kansas Small Business Development Center. The session will be held 1:30-4:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 15, at WSU’s Hughes Metropolitan Complex. Register at http://bit.ly/1rtGmP4.