The Department of Defense issued SBIR Solicitation (2010.2) and is now accepting proposals from small technical companies to do research but the projects also need to have commercial applications. The SBIR program funding early stage R&D Proposals are due June 23, 2010.
The program’s goal is to stimulate innovation, increase private sector commercialization of federal R&D, and increase small business participation among minority and disadvantaged firms. The DOD program was funded at $1.23 billion in 2009 and is part of a larger federal SBIR program currently administered at 12 other federal agencies.
The Army’s part of the solicitation has a number of interests in many fields but would like to see several proposals in the biomedical field. For example, Army wants to acquire a novel biomimetic tissue scaffold to be used for regenerating bone, nerve, vascular, and/or other connective tissues and be acceptable for small scale cGMP production of clinical trial materials.
Scaffold devices used in the field of tissue engineering are considered a promising viable technology in regenerative medicine. While a few tissue scaffolds have been developed and marketed to enable tissue engineering-based repair and replacement of lost tissue; none of these marketed scaffolds are suitable for regenerating large tissue losses of the head and extremities now being observed in casualties returning from recent war zones.
The Army would also like to see the development of a fiber based ultrafast laser surgical tool to be used for novel combat casualty care surgical applications, including wound and burn debridement, and for selective shrapnel removal. These ultrafast lasers can also be paired with various spectroscopic techniques such as laser induced breakdown spectroscopy to create a feedback loop to assist a surgeon or field technician in surgery.
Go to www.acq.osd.mil/osbp/sbir/solicitations/sbir102/ for more information, or go to www.dodsbir.net.
