Billions of dollars up for grabs for Indiana’s small businesses
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indiana Procurement and Technical Assistance Center, the Indiana Innovation Institute and the NavalX Midwest Tech Bridge are helping small businesses get money they need.
“For the SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research), this is 2019 data, it’s $3.2 billion dollars available through the federal government and on the STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) program, $453 million,” said Julie Griffith, executive vice president of IN3, the abbreviated name of the Indiana Innovation Institute.
The three groups are hosting a series of free statewide workshops to provide guidance on how to take advantage of the federal Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology programs.
The Small Business Innovation Research program provides funding to small businesses to take part in federal research and development that could be commercialized.
Griffith says some of those companies may never get a shot without this funding.
“Indiana has some incredible defense companies both small medium and large. But to have those small businesses be able to capture those federal dollars to be able to sell to the federal government is a really important thing in terms of growing the defense sector in the state,” Griffith said.
In most instances, she says, small businesses don’t know they’re is money to be had.
“I think small businesses have their hands full, they’re very busy people. So often they don’t have the time or patience, which I certainly understand, to go after some of these things, so for us to be able to provide that sort of support to go after these dollars is great,” Griffith said.
Julie says, with the Small Business Innovation or Small Business Technology programs, some of the small businesses in Indiana could really explode.
“Small businesses are really the backbone of the Indiana economy, but they so often lack the resources to be able to take part in these programs that really could catapult them and grow their businesses pretty significantly,” Griffith said.