U.S. Department of Energy Announces $72 Million for Innovative Research and Development by Small Businesses

73 GRANTS WILL SUPPORT SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENT AND JOB CREATION

WASHINGTON, D.C. – (RealEstateRama) — U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced that the Department of Energy will award 73 grants totaling $72 million to 68 small businesses in 24 states.  Funded through DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, today’s selections are for Phase II research and development.  Small businesses that demonstrated technical feasibility for innovations during their Phase I grants competed for funding for prototype or processes development during Phase II.  In addition, prior Phase II awardees competed for sequential Phase II awards to continue prototype and process development.  The median Phase II award is $1 million for a period of two years.

The 73 awards are funded by Office of Science programs in Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences, and Nuclear Physics.  Illustrative proposed projects include:

• Silicon photonics parallel processor for high performance computing and sensor networks
• Ceramic-metal joining of components used at high-temperature and high pressure
• Direct conversion of natural gas components to high value petrochemicals: isobutane to high purity isobutylene
• Pixel array germanium detectors for nuclear physics

More information about the array of projects announced today is available at https://science.energy.gov/sbir/awards/.  More awards from this competition may be announced in the coming weeks as additional appropriated FY 2017 funds become available to the DOE SBIR and STTR programs.

Small businesses play a major role in spurring innovation and creating jobs in the U.S. economy.  The SBIR and STTR programs were created by Congress to leverage small businesses to advance innovation at federal agencies. Additional information on the DOE SBIR and STTR programs is available on the SBIR/STTR Programs Office website at  http://science.energy.gov/sbir/.

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