STATE OF ILLINOIS INTRODUCING SBIR/STTR MATCHING PROGRAM
March, 2004
The federal government has established several programs that are designed to stimulate technological innovation in the private sector, as well as to strengthen the ability of the small business sector to meet federal research and development needs. The most significant of these is the SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) program, a competitively awarded, three-phase Federal Government program that is designed to provide funding opportunities for small technology businesses. Eleven federal agencies reserve a portion of their internal research and development budgets to be awarded via the SBIR program.
The purpose of the Innovation Challenge Grant Program will be to increase the state's participation and success in these federal funding programs. It will do so by assisting companies to enter the application process, by assisting them to make their applications more attractive to federal reviewers, and by assisting them to commercialize the results of their federally-funded technology development. The customers for this program will be the state's small (i.e., fewer than 500 employees) technology businesses.
It is expected that the majority of small technology businesses which utilize this program will come to it through contact and assistance from the Illinois Technology Enterprise Centers (ITECs), including the Illini ITEC in Champaign. This would not be the only source of entrance into the program, however. Small businesses will also be guided to it through contacts with DCEO Regional Staff, Entrepreneurship Centers, Manufacturing Extension Centers, the DCEO Web Site, DCEO Business Development staff, Small Business Development Centers, etc.
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