From Nature Biotechnology: SBIR grants wax

Awards under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program have just been given a boost. As of March 30, the cap for SBIR phase I awards has risen from $100,000 to $150,000, and for phase II awards from $750,000 to $1,000,000. The increases are intended to take account of inflation since 1992 when the threshold amounts were last set by Congress. "This will have an important positive impact at a critical [juncture] in the aftermath of the nation's great recession," says Simcha Jong, university lecturer in management science and innovation at University College London. Jong says that, historically, the SBIR program helped forge links between university science and industry and, at this pivotal time, could help kick-start the US job engine. The Senate has passed a bill to extend the SBIR and related Small Business Technology Transfer through July 31 (Nat. Biotechnol. 27, 1065-1066, 2009). Even more generous than SBIR grants are the new Small Business Helping Investigators to Fuel the Translation of Scientific Discoveries (SHIFT) awards launched on March 5 by the US Department of Health and Human Services. These awards, aimed at fostering translational research, offer companies up to $2.65 million over five years. "The main point is to encourage current academic researchers to apply, and use it to move to biotech," says Jiwu Wang, president and CEO of Allele, a San Diego-based company that has taken products to market with SBIR support. "It is a great idea."

Emma Dorey, Nature Biotechnology