Senator Chris Coons Champions Support Startup Businesses Act
Ex-DuPonters listen up! If you are one of the 1,700 workers laid off this year, then this kind of legislation is for you.
The Support Startup Businesses Act is a bill that gives U.S. scientists and engineers greater flexibility to translate federally-funded research and development into marketable products and services.
U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) today introduced this legislation, which would create a pilot program that allows awardees of federal research and development grants to use a portion of that funding to create a startup business.
Specifically, the bill authorizes Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program awardees to allocate up to 5 percent of their awards for activities that are critical to building businesses, including services such as market validation, intellectual property protection, market research, and business model development. Currently, the SBIR program only offers very limited financial support to awardees for commercialization activities.
The Support Startup Businesses Act would:
•Establish a temporary pilot program that allows SBIR awardees to use a small portion of their grants for startup-related commercialization activities.
•Require annual reporting by awardees on startup-related commercialization activities and a review of the pilot program upon completion.
The bill authorizes the use of existing resources, so the pilot program will not increase overall program spending.
The bill has been endorsed by Delaware business and innovation supporters such as the University of Delaware; the Delaware Small Business Development Center, the University of Delaware Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships and Delaware BioScience Association.
- Innovations 4 Entrepreneurs contest – Win up to$30,000 cash and more for your business!
- Delaware Economic Summit 2016