The U.S. DOT announced this month that 20 U.S. small businesses will receive a total of $3 million in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Phase I awards stemming from the FY 2020 Phase I Solicitation announced earlier this year.
Each year, U.S. DOT’s SBIR Program awards contracts to small businesses across the country to spur research and commercialization of innovative transportation technologies.
“The selected projects have the potential to improve safety and infrastructure on highways, rail, pipelines, and in our vehicles,” Diana Furchtgott-Roth, U.S. DOT Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, said in a statement.
U.S. DOT said small businesses from 14 states were awarded contracts in research areas that align with the department's research priorities. The U.S. DOT Volpe Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, administers the congressionally-mandated SBIR Program on behalf of the Office of the Secretary of Transportation.
The SBIR Program encourages domestic small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development that has the potential for commercialization. The program awards contracts in two phases and recognizes a third phase leading up to commercialization.
The SBIR program is currently working to award these Phase I contracts while also preparing upcoming Phase II and Phase IIB contracts, which will further support small businesses working to commercialize technologies developed through previous competitions.
A full list of this year’s Phase I funding awardees can be found here.
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SOURCE: U.S. DOT
