Upcoming SBIR Conference may be the last.

The federal Small Business Innovation Research conference is coming to Wisconsin in April. Don’t be shocked if it’s one of the last to be held – anywhere.

Like many other research and development programs funded by the federal government, the 30-year-old SBIR grant program faces an uncertain future. Federal budget deficits and skeptical attitudes about the value of investments in science, from the space program to energy to climate change studies, have put R&D spending under a budget-cutting microscope in Congress.

Tom Still

Full Story: http://wistechnology.com/articles/8405/

***

Small Business Bushwhacked Again on SBIR Research Grants

The new Congress is looking a lot like the old Congress in the debate over two key conduits of federal research and development grants for small businesses — the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the Small Business Technical Transfer (STTR) program. Funding authorization for both is hanging by a thread and still deeply mired in politics.

Keith Girard

Full Story: http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-legislative/15480731-1.html