SBIR/STTR Rural Outreach Awards Made

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has selected 10 states to receive continuation awards of up to $47,000 for the SBIR/STTR Rural Outreach Program. The three-year-old program provides matching grants to states to establish or expand programs to assist small high technology businesses to increase their participation and success in SBIR and STTR programs through training, counseling and outreach.

Of the 25 eligible states, the recipients — Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming — were found by an outside peer review panel to be the top performers based on FY 2001 performance reports.

The narrow award pool and more rigorous review process resulted from the 67 percent cut in the FY 2002 Congressional appropriations for the Rural Outreach Program. The FY 2001 budget for the program was $1.5 million, while the FY 2002 budget was $500,000.

Maurice Swinton, SBA Assistant Administrator of the Office of Technology, reports the period of performance for the FY 2002 Rural Outreach Program awards will run from January, 2002, through December, 2002. A new competition for FY 2003 awards, open to all 25 eligible states, will be conducted in late September or early October 2002, pending Congressional appropriation of FY 2003 funding.

SBA requested continuation funding of $500,000 for the program in FY 2003. For the Administration to provide larger awards to more of the eligible states, Congress would have to appropriate more than the $500,000 requested.

More information on the Rural Outreach Program is available on the SBA website: http://www.sba.gov/sbir/ or from Cherina Hunter at: Cherina.Hunter@sba.gov