- SBA forms collaboration with Millennium Challenge Corporation
- Partnership will allow small businesses in SBIR/STTR to help address global challenges and reach an international market
- SBIR/STTR is the nation’s largest source of research and development funding for small businesses
Summary by Dirk Langeveld
The U.S. Small Business Administration has formed a collaboration with the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a foreign aid agency seeking to reduce poverty in developing nations through economic initiatives, to help businesses participating in two major research and development funding programs address global challenges.
The SBA and MCC signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a partnership to identify, pilot, and scale emerging technologies and innovations developed through the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. The effort seeks to address country-specific needs in areas such as renewable energy, agriculture and irrigation, health, water, sanitation, and hygiene.
- Small businesses receiving SBIR/STTR funding will gain access to international markets through the initiative
- The collaboration has also allowed the SBA to contribute to the creation of the MCC’s new Innovation and Technology Program, which “provides private sector technology solutions for developmental impact and commercialization with MCC programs and partner countries”
- The SBIR/STTR programs are administered by SBA’s Office of Investment and Innovation in collaboration with 11 other federal agencies
- The programs are the nation’s largest source of early stage research and development funding for small business, providing more than $4 billion a year in research and development awards
