Montana Innovation Partnership

Montana State University’s TechLink Center has been awarded a federal grant to expand its assistance to technology-related businesses across Montana. The U.S. Small Business Administration announced on September 18, 2020, that it had awarded a Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program grant for $125,000 to fund TechLink’s Montana Innovation Partnership.Read More

by Christie Bell, CLP Final Steps and FDA Assistance This is the third and final article of a three-part series written to orient inventors of FDA regulations and requirements for consumables, drugs, and devices. In Part 1 we introduced an overarching scope of the purpose and process of the FDA.Read More

by Christie Bell, CLP The timeline, steps and cost. When not expedited by special programs, the standard drug development process can take from 10-15 years. For more in-depth information on the four special programs (Fast Track, Breakthrough Therapy, Accelerated Approval, and Priority Review) please review Part 1 of this 3-partRead More

Guest post by Christie Bell, CLP As the global race to find a vaccine for COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) speeds up by the hour, biotech companies with a potential solution to the pandemic, but who aren’t familiar with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process, are feverishly seeking primer-level informationRead More

Technical Readiness Level What’s a TRL? Technical readiness levels represent a scale for estimating the development of technologies throughout the life of a project. This system was developed by NASA in the 1970s as a way to stimulate “consistent, uniform discussions” about the level of maturity for a range ofRead More

The Project Pitch and F.A.Q. The first step in the NSF SBIR program is submitting a project pitch. This three-page submission gives startups and small businesses quick feedback before applying for Phase I NSF funding. Program directors let applicants know within weeks whether or not they are a good fitRead More

Citations in SBIR/STTR Proposals by Christie Bell, CLP While citations are not required in SBIR and STTR proposals, application authors who choose not to cite the sources of their content significantly lower their chances of being funded. Appropriately cited applications help to assure agency reviewers that the principal investigator isRead More

Accounting Tips for SBIR/STTR Awardees Jameson & Company specializes in accounting for government grants and contracts. Ed Jameson recently presented three webinars on understanding indirect cost rates, how to set up your books for government awards, and how to survive the audits embedded in your federal funding award. Here areRead More

Hot off the presses! TechLink Economic Impact Study of DoD SBIR/STTR Programs Published In 2018, TechLink completed the first comprehensive analysis of the Department of Defense SBIR and STTR programs. TechLink’s goal was to quantify the DoD SBIR/STTR program’s overall contribution to the U.S. economy and defense mission. It examinedRead More

2020 Fast Micro-Grants are here! If you are planning to submit a Phase I or Phase II SBIR/STTR proposal in the coming months, you may be eligible to receive one of MTIP’s 2020 FAST micro-grants. Qualified applicants will be reimbursed up to $1,500.00 for costs related to the preparation ofRead More