Sources of Public Funding within the Building-Products Marketspace
Note: It is recommended that you set up a "Feed" such as Google Alerts to search the Internet and periodically notify you as specific keywords pertaining to public funding are detected.
Many kinds of organizations now exist to support would-be entrepreneurs, including specialized SBIR (small business innovation research) and business incubators.
SBIR grants typically are federal funds that:
- offer financial support for technological innovation such as energy-related topics
- have three distinct funding phases (1, 2, and 3)
- explores feasibility of innovative concepts (awards up to $100,000 for 9 months)
- proposal-to-award ratios are about 5-to-1 for Phase 1
- R&D effort (awards up to $750,000 during the course of a two-year period)
- proposal-to-award ratios are about 2.5-to-1 for Phase 2
- must be Phase 1 awardee to apply for Phase 2
- non-Federal capital is used to pursue commercial applications of the R&D
- adhere to the following timelines
- fall solicitations released -(September/October)
- winter submissions deadline - (December/January)
- spring selections for Phase 1 -(April/May)
- summer grant start date -(June/July)
- have the following comments from awardees
- the technology advancements, patents, and developed expertise resulted in the creation of a venture capitalized spin-off company
- spin-off company was purchased through an IPO for $22.9 million
- able to hire two PhD engineers through SBIR project funds
- our technology is now commercialized and marketed globally
- gross revenue from our operations are in excess of $7 million
- due to our success, we were able to raise $250M+ for commercialization efforts
- able to perform R&D without relinquishing majority control to venture capitalists
- will employ 30-50 individuals (projected annual revenues in excess of $40M)
- grew from 5 employees to 25 employees since participating in SBIR program
- successful Phase 1 and 2 performance attracted Phase 3 funding from industry
- sold our SBIR-funded technology to industry
- now able to pursue applications of the technology to other related fields
For details, see http://www.sc.doe.gov/sbir/.
Other public sources of funding for green building products Show/Hide Content
GBA's Green Building Products Initiative
Includes the Product Innovation Grants and is funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority, The Heinz Endowments, and the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
Awardees: GBA has awarded a total of $448,000 in Product Innovation Grants to seven of 23 teams.
- $100,000 Ductmate Industries and the University of Pittsburgh
- $100,000 Tegrant Corporation and the University of Pittsburgh
- $81,564 Iron Oxide Recovery, Hedin Environmental, and the University of Pittsburgh
- $81,062 Burt Hill and Penn State University
- $45,736 Geothermal Energy Systems and Carnegie Mellon University
- $20,000 Drexel University
- $20,000 Villanova University
Contact: Aurora Sharrard, Ph.D. ▪ 412.953.9980 ▪ auroras@gbapgh.org
The Kauffman Foundation’s grant-making framework includes idea grants to get innovation moving, seed grants to pilot and test good ideas, and scale grants to refine and bring good programs up to scale.
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