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TechConnect’s upcoming educational bootcamps on the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant programs, conducted in partnership with the West Virginia Small Business Development Center, are moving online.

“Our events planned for April 21 in Huntington and May 7 in Bluefield will be conducted virtually,” said Anne Barth, executive director of TechConnectWV.  “We’ll monitor the situation and make a determination about the June, July and August events at a later date,” she added.

The bootcamps also include an overview of the newly launched West Virginia Entrepreneurship and Innovation Investment Fund (an SBIR-STTR matching fund program) and information about resources to assist small businesses in pursuing SBIRs and STTRs.

“Despite the serious impacts of the coronavirus, TechConnect can leverage online technologies to allow us to continue our work with small businesses, entrepreneurs and researchers to support their efforts to develop new products, technologies and services.

“Now is a good time to explore funding programs like SBIR-STTR to help develop new products in order to have them ready to go to market when the economy begins to recover,” Barth said.

The online bootcamps will be held from 4-6 p.m.  The sessions are free, but registration is required.  Click here to register for the April 21 session; click here to register for the May 7 session.

This program is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The bootcamps educate small businesses about the SBIR/STTR programs, help companies identify funding opportunities, provide information on completing necessary registrations, teach strategies for developing and refining proposal ideas, and give guidance on how to get ready to write the application.

The SBIR-STTR program is often called “America’s largest seed fund” because it provides early stage funding to encourage small businesses to engage in Federal research and development to create commercially viable innovations.

For additional information, contact Anne Barth at (304) 444-2918, anne@techconnectwv.org.