Funding Opportunities with Small Business Innovation Research Program
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program offers grants to qualified small businesses (including small and medium-sized farms) in support of high quality, innovative research related to important scientific problems and opportunities in agriculture that could lead to significant public benefit if successfully commercialized. The USDA SBIR program has awarded more than 2,000 grants since its inception in 1983, allowing hundreds of small businesses to explore their technological potential and profit from the commercialization of their innovative ideas.
SBIR is a three-phase program. In Phase I, the grantees normally test the proof of concept within an 8-month grant period with a maximum grant size of $80,000. Successful Phase I grantees are invited to submit applications for Phase II funding, with grants lasting 24 months and limited to $350,000. Phase II can lead to the development of a prototype. Phase III is the commercialization phase of the SBIR program and is not funded by the USDA. However, grantees are encouraged to seek Phase III funding from other entities and show commercialization potential at the time of applying for a Phase II grant. Up to one-third of Phase I and one-half of Phase II grant dollars can be used to fund activities by university or government scientists in support of SBIR projects.
Approximately $19 million in funding for the SBIR program in FY 2008 is allocated over 12 broad topic areas in proportion to the number of proposals received. Visit the CSREES Web site for more details about the SBIR program. Three of the topic areas—Small and Mid-Sized Farms, Marketing and Trade, and Rural Development—are particularly relevant to small farms and ranching enterprises.
Small and Mid-sized Farms:
Funding will support the development of new information and technologies to improve the viability and profitability of small and mid-size farms and ranches. Emphasis is placed on developing new agricultural enterprises that focus on plant and animal specialty farm products and how to market these products; new management tools to make small farms more efficient and profitable; small farming methods that are scaled appropriately and more efficiently use natural resources; and ensuring that small farmers have new educational tools and the information they need to operate their farms on a sustainable and profitable basis.
Contact Dr. Charles Cleland, national program leader (NPL) for Competitive Programs, for more information.
Marketing and Trade:
This topic area focuses on innovative marketing strategies to increase sales of raw or processed agricultural, forestry, and aquacultural products, and raw or processed commodities and the value-added foods, feed, and industrial products derived from them. A wide range of strategies are applicable, including evaluating the type, size, and location of domestic and international market opportunities; strategies to enter new markets or expand sales in current markets; advanced information systems that provide vital information on marketing opportunities in a region, state, or the nation; and development of market-based approaches to reduce or mitigate adverse agri-environmental consequences or to promote positive agri-environmental outcomes while simultaneously preserving economic growth.
Contact Dr. Suresh Sureshwaran, NPL for Competitive Programs, for more information.
Rural Development:
This topic area focuses on technology—developing new technology and applying existing technology in innovative ways—to address important problems and opportunities that affect people and institutions in rural America. Since FY 2005, this topic is less centered on agriculture per se, and more on areas of growing importance to rural communities (e.g., enhancing the environment, disaster resilience, service delivery, and entrepreneurial and workforce skills) that could provide significant national benefits. Applicants to Rural Development should explicitly discuss the specific rural problem or opportunity that they will examine and how this project will successfully address it.
Contact Dr. Suresh Sureshwaran, NPL for Competitive Programs, for more information.
Examples of projects previously funded through these three topics:
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Small and Mid-sized Farms, 2006: Organic Goldenseal Production for Small Farms
A production and processing system for the medicinal plant Goldenseal with USDA National Organic Program certification
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Marketing and Trade, 2006: Quality Verification Program for Family Farms
A USDA Quality System Verification Program, which provides standard operating procedures for all-natural beef and free-range poultry
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Rural Development, 2007: E-commerce for Rural Areas
Internet promotion of wood products made in rural communities
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