The Minnesota High Tech Association has received a $125,000 grant from the Small Business Administration to assist the state's startups and early-stage companies.
MHTA will focus the resources received from the grant on women-owned businesses, minority-owned businesses and rural businesses. It will be used by used to help these companies compete in the annual Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs.
The SBA grant is highly competitive. Only one proposal is allowed from each state, and the governor must endorse the organization that applies. The proposals are evaluated by a collection of reviewers from high-profile organizations such as NASA and the National Institutes of Health. This year, SBA received 42 proposals for consideration and ultimately 24 were selected to receive grants.
This is the seventh consecutive year that Minnesota has received the grant from SBA.
The SBIR and STTR programs were created in 1982 and 1992 respectively. MNSBIR offers business and technical assistance to firms to start, grow and exit their businesses. MNSBIR is hosted by MHTA with state funds from the Minnesota Department of Economic Development. MNSBIR also receives support from the University of Minnesota, Mayo Clinic Business Accelerator, Collider and University Enterprise Laboratories.
Since 2014, MNSBIR has helped 38 companies win nearly $20 million in SBIR/STTR funding. Local firms have been awarded nearly $718 million in the same kind of funding, and this has led to angel and venture capital investments, new products, patents, acquisitions and more.
In a statement, MHTA said that the fresh round of funding will play a "critical" role is helping the organization launch a new accelerator. This program will assist up to 120 startups and small businesses prepare to submit research proposals and prepare for funding.
"We are focused on turning new ideas and inventions into products and technologies that spur job growth and competitiveness while promoting economic development," Pat Dillon, MHTA's MNSBIR director said in a statement.
