UW Receives Grant to Help Entrepreneurs Develop Innovations

Entrepreneurs will continue to receive no-cost support from the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network to research and develop their innovations, thanks to a $125,000 grant awarded to the University of Wyoming.

This is among only 24 federal and state technology grants awarded by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) this year. The Wyoming SBDC Network will use the funds to provide outreach, mentoring and technical assistance to entrepreneurs seeking funding through the SBA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

The Wyoming SBDC Network’s Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative (WSSI) last year helped entrepreneurs win more than $1.7 million in funding through these programs.

“This funding will allow the university to expand its outreach and education efforts supporting Wyoming’s innovative small businesses,” says Kelly Haigler Cornish, WSSI program manager for the Wyoming SBDC Network. “Entrepreneurs will be better equipped to advance their ideas into commercial products through the SBIR/STTR funding mechanism.”

Entrepreneurs also can apply for a $5,000 contract -- which UW funds through a grant from the Wyoming Business Council -- to get started with the SBIR/STTR process.

This is the sixth consecutive year that the Wyoming SBDC Network has received the highly competitive grant. Only one proposal is allowed from each state, and the governor must endorse it. The proposals are then evaluated by panels of reviewers from SBA, NASA, the Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research and the National Institutes of Health.

The Wyoming SBDC Network offers business expertise to help Wyoming residents think about, launch, grow, reinvent or exit their businesses. The Wyoming SBDC Network is hosted by UW with state funds from the Wyoming Business Council and funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. SBA.

For more information about the Wyoming SBDC, call 1-800-348-5194, email wsbdc@uwyo.edu, or write 1000 E. University Ave., Dept. 3922, Laramie, WY, 82071-3922.