NIH has made their “Niche Assessment Program” available for SBIR Phase 1 awardees funded in FY 2011 and 2012. All active NIH SBIR Phase 1 awardees as well as small businesses selected to receive a Phase 1 award in the first three month of the upcoming fiscal year are eligible to participate.
This program helps to “jump start” a company’s commercialization efforts by providing the market insight and data to strategically position products in the marketplace. The program assists companies with commercialization plans for Phase II applications, and helps businesses locate potential partners.
Foresight Science and Technology has been selected to do the unbiased assessment of SBIR appropriate market niches for products and services and will develop an in-depth report for each SBIR awardee.
The Niche Assessment Program is appropriate for all types of technologies such as devices, drugs, biologics, and therapeutics as well as for companies developing software, educational, and multi-media behavioral science products.
One hundred slots are available and will be filled on a first come, first served basis. The average time to complete a “Technology Niche” analysis is 2 to 3 months and will be completed between September 2011 and early March 2012.
For more information, email Ryan Hill at Foresight at ryan.hill@foresightst.com. Go to http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-11-094.html to see the NIH announcement.
In another initiative, the National Science Foundation (NSF) through their SBIR “MatchMaker” Program will help businesses by introducing companies to pre-selected, high technology emerging businesses such as Venture Capital Groups, Angel Investors, and Strategic Corporate Partners. The goal is to help Phase II grantees.
The SBIR companies involved in the “MatchMaker” Program must have secured nearly $1 million to develop and advance their early-stage cutting edge research. In order to take part in the program, only Phase II grantees that have successfully advanced to highly competitive selection rounds of assessment involving two rigorous technical peer reviews as well as one comprehensive commercial review, will be considered.
For more information on the program, go to www.nsf.gov/eng/iip/sbir/matchmaker.jsp.
