The Department of Commerce www.commerce.gov has announced that 20 small businesses will receive $3.2 million in grants to spur innovation and competiveness through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) www.nist.gov part of the Commerce Department.
The businesses ranging in size from one to 24 employees will receive Phase I or Phase II funding through the NIST SBIR program www.nist.gov/tpo/sbir. The awardees are from 15 states and were competitively selected from proposals submitted in response to calls for innovative products to solve specific technology challenges in healthcare cybersecurity, cyber-physical systems, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, climate change, and technology transfer.
Phase I awardees receive up to $100,000 to establish potential proposed research and development. After completing their Phase I projects, awardees may vie for Phase II funding for up to $300,000 to continue their efforts. In Phase III, non-SBIR funds are used for the commercialization of the technology.
Several companies received awards are involved in the field of medical and healthcare such as:
- AdSem Inc. (Mountain View California) received $99,997 for the project “Tuning Germanium Crystal Reflectivity and Mosaic” which can be used to improve telescope focusing systems and the quality of x-ray images for cancer diagnosis
- Advanced Research Corp (White Bear Lake, Minnesota) received $99,329 for the project “High-Throughput Manufacturing Methods for Engineered MRI Contrast Agents”. The research developed a MRI contrast agent to significantly increase the detection of tagged cells for applications in cell transplantations and therapies to treat neurodegenerative diseases, tumors, strokes, and brain injuries
- Weinberg Medical Physics LLC (Bethesda Maryland) received $99,619 for the project “High-throughput Manufacturing Methods for Engineered MRI Contrast Agents”. The researchers developed a process to validate techniques for rapid massively parallel fabrications of microscale contrast agents that have the potential to increase the specificity and resolution of imaging techniques while reducing morbidity
- Nodexus Inc. (Berkeley, California) received $100,000 for the project “New Manufacturing Processes for Next-Generation Microfluidic Screening Tools” which is a new manufacturing processes for polymer-based instrumentation
- En’Urga, Inc. (West Lafayette, Indiana) received $300,000 for the project “Combined Extinction/Fluorescence Absorption Diagnostics for Sprays” which is a prototype of a quality audit system for sprays used to deliver medicine as from inhalers or machines that coat tablets
- High Precision Devices, Inc. (Boulder, Colorado) received $300,000 for the project “Optimization of the NIST/UCSF Breast Phantom” which is a cost effective, shelf stable NIST designed MRI breast phantom used to calibrate MRI systems used in breast cancer research studies and in clinical settings