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Martin Zeller
Manager, Knowledge Resources
ETTC
For the past two years
the Far West RTTC has funded affiliate organizations in its Far
West region states to promote commercialization of NASA technology,
particularly with respect to the Small Business Innovation Research
(SBIR) program. The Far West RTTC is highlighting its Arizona
affiliate, Arizona Technology Incubator (ATI) for their work in
promoting NASA's SBIR program to small Arizona businesses. ATI
has named their program Arizona Small Business Innovation (ASBI)
Program. The principals of the ASBI program are Tom Inderlied,
Rebecca Lacy and Larry Lacy. NASA and the NASA Far West RTTC are
ASBI's primary sponsors. ATI and Arizona State University (ASU)
are also co-sponsors of the Program. Other than the NASA funding,
ASBI does not receive any additional state or federal funding
for outreach of the SBIR Program.
ASBI has conducted
two major SBIR conferences in the past 18 months. The Far West
RTTC has participated in both conferences both as a financial
sponsor and in providing conference speakers. Representatives
from the Department of Defense, NIST's Advanced Technology Program,
The Boeing Company, National Science Foundation, venture capital
firms, and companies that have successfully commercialized technologies
developed under SBIR/STTR have also participated.
In addition to the
two conferences, ASBI has been holding workshops and training
sessions with Arizona city governments and municipal groups, small
businesses and Native American groups. ASBI recently signed an
MOA to train Native American companies on research funding opportunities
available through the SBIR Program. Other outreach efforts have
targeted small and minority business opportunity fairs in an effort
to provide information regarding the program to businesses that
have historically not been exposed to this opportunity.
In the two years that
the ASBI Program has been in place, NASA has received significant
exposure and achieved a much larger presence in Arizona. The result
of ASBI's efforts will be a great benefit to NASA's SBIR program.
For further information, please contact Martin Zeller at the NASA Far West RTTC at 213-743-2927 or zeller@usc.edu.
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