Eva Garland Consulting (EGC) is pleased to present a three-part Fall 2024 Grant Webinar Series. This series is part of EGC’s continued commitment to providing valuable insights about the non-dilutive funding landscape to the scientific and entrepreneurial communities.
- September 18 – Harvesting America’s Seed Fund: Guidance for navigating the NSF’s SBIR / STTR application process
- October 2 – Leveraging non-dilutive funding for drug discovery and development
- October 23 – Department of Energy funding for emerging businesses
Session 1: Harvesting America’s Seed Fund: Guidance for navigating the NSF’s SBIR / STTR application process
Presented by: Dana Upton, Ph. D., MBA
Touted as America’s Seed Fund, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) SBIR / STTR program provides early-stage funding to small businesses engaged in high-risk, high-reward R&D to help them develop and commercialize innovative technologies. Each year, the NSF provides more than $200 million in SBIR / STTR program awards to ~400 startups across nearly all technology areas including artificial intelligence, energy, medical devices, robotics, semiconductors, and many more.
Dr. Upton will provide an overview of the NSF SBIR / STTR program, highlight what’s new in fiscal year 2025, and showcase what it takes to develop a competitive proposal to secure an award. Topics include eligibility requirements, registrations, submission timelines, project pitch fundamentals, project descriptions, budgets, post-submission activities, and other tips from EGC’s 100+ years of collective experience in the NSF SBIR/STTR program.
Session 2: Leveraging non-dilutive funding for drug discovery and development
Presented by: Connie Vance, Ph. D. and Tiger Xie, Ph. D.
Non-dilutive funding, particularly from government grants and contracts, is a valuable resource for biopharmaceutical start-ups. Each year, major U.S. government agencies allocate tens of billions of dollars to small businesses to support innovative drug development initiatives.
This webinar will cover key strategies for utilizing non-dilutive funding sources to support various stages of the drug discovery and development process. It will also provide an overview of major government and private foundation funding opportunities that support the biopharma industry. Additionally, Dr. Vance and Dr. Xie will share valuable tips on how to prepare competitive grant applications specifically tailored for drug discovery and development initiatives.
Session 3: Department of Energy funding for emerging businesses
Presented by: Lu Lu, Ph. D.
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) SBIR / STTR program has an annual budget exceeding $300 million, awarding around 400 Phase I and 200 Phase II grants each year. This program supports research in areas such as clean energy, energy production, energy use, fundamental energy sciences, environmental management, and defense nuclear nonproliferation. In addition to the SBIR / STTR program, the DOE has a number of other initiatives, such as ARPA-E, that provide hundreds of millions in funding to innovative technologies that fulfill the DOE’s mission.
During this webinar, Dr. Lu will cover the fundamentals of the DOE SBIR / STTR program, including eligibility, application process, useful resources, success rate, and tips in preparing a competitive proposal. She will also provide insights on ARPA-E and other non-dilutive funding opportunities available at the DOE.