The Senate passed S.1233 today. With the House bill that passed last week, we now have two possible bills with three possible solutions:
The House and Senate reach a compromise and then send the bill onto the President for his signature into law
The House and Senate do not reach a compromise before the July 31st deadline but decide to temporarily continue through a Continuing Resolution. In this case, we would start the process all over again at a future date
The House and Senate do not reach a compromise, there is no provision for a continuing resolution, and thus, the SBIR program dies.
Let's think positive and hope that the first option happens. If not, the second option would not be ideal, but it would be a better than the 3rd option.
The senate bill was passed with some amendments, including a requirement for better metrics and reauthorizing both programs for an eight-year period.
Hopefully, in the next week or two the House and Senate will reach a compromise and with the addition of President Obama's signature, we will have a reauthorized program.
At approximately 12:30pm Monday afternoon portions the parking deck attached to the building that houses the ATDC collapsed. Emergency crews have been working nonstop to shore up the garage and search for casualties. Search efforts have found no evidence of victims.
ATDC will remain open during the rescue and recovery operations. The Centergy parking deck will stay closed until further notice. All visitors to ATDC should park at the Georgia Tech hotel on Spring Street. Directions to the hotel parking deck can be found here.
In a press release issued last Tuesday the NIH reported a record number of grants submitted on April 27th in response to the Challenge Grant RFA. Each of the 20,000 applications will be reviewed by 3 scientific reviewers and a summary statement compiled. This process will require more than 18,000 scientists to complete. To put it into perspective the NIH reviews approximately 16,000 applications in each of 3 rounds annually. Each round requires 8,000 reviewers.
The NIH estimates it will review approximately 40,000 applications in direct response to either the Challenge Grant or other ARRA associated funding. This process is going to require more than 28,000 reviewers.
The outcome? Approximately 200 Challenge Grants will be selected and $200 Million awarded.
If you are patiently waiting for your summary statement they are estimated to be available in August. Check your eRA Commons account.
Please join us in welcoming SSI Innovations to ATDC. SSI Innovations, a new ATDC member company, provides simplified solutions to improve the lives
of seniors through technology and scientifically proven cognitive
techniques.
Initially focusing on the eldercare market, SSI Innovations
aims to improve relationships between seniors of all cognitive
abilities, their families, and care managers. SSI Innovations offers a
compelling service to facilities and families alike, improving seniors'
quality of life, decreasing care manager turnover, and positively
impacting families.
We are please to have SSI Innovations be a part of our incubator program and look forward to working with them.
Solo-Health is positioning to become the world’s leader in self-service health screening, with an initial market focus on eye health. Watch Solo-Health’s EyeSite self-service vision testing and new patient generating kiosk product at work in a segment on CNBC’s “Street Signs” with Erin Burnett to see for yourself.
ATDC is happy to say that CNBC spotted Solo-Health by following ATDC’s blog, PeachSeedz. If you want to be “in the know on emerging growth companies” like CNBC does, subscribe to our blog now.
Solo-Health is on the move. They recently announced a partnership with leading eye care companies including Transitions Optical, Inc., and Optos to deploy a large number of its award-winning EyeSite kiosks in a major US market this summer while simultaneously closing on a round of angel capital.
If you want to check out EyeSite™ kiosks for yourself, make a visit to the Disco Kroger on Piedmont Road and take just 5 minutes to assess your near and far vision, schedule an appointment with a local eye doctor, and learn about general eye health conditions.
The House Small Business Subcommittee met yesterday to discuss proposals to reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs.Watch (via YouTube) as Representatives meet to discuss "Legislative Initiatives to Strengthen and Modernize the SBIR and STTR Programs". Chairman Glenn Nye (D-VA) and Ranking Member Aaron Schock (R-IL) provided opening statements followed by a list of witnesses:
Mr. Mark B. Leahey, President & CEO, Medical Device Manufacturers Association
Mr. Jack Biddle, Founding Partner of Novak Biddle Venture Partners (on behalf of the National Venture Capital Association)
Mr. Joe Hernandez, President & CEO, Innovative Biosensors Inc (on behalf of the Biotechnology Industry Organization)
Ms. Marion C. Blakey, President & CEO, Aerospace Industries Association
Mr. Brett Loper, SVP & Director Government Affairs, AdvaMed
A year ago today SBIRGA was launched. Happy Birthday!! Our goal was to have "SBIR on your mind" when you sought SBIR funding announcements, research information, and assistance–the place you go when wanting to take your high-tech concept/innovation to the next level.
Following on the footsteps of two blogs for Georgia's small tech companies, Peachseedz and GT VentureLab, SBIRGA provided news and information as well as tips and insight into the proposal preparation process. One of the major benefits for those reading and following SBIRGA was the posting of SBIR and STTR solicitations as they opened.
The mission of the SBIR Assistance Program for the State of Georgia is to:
Educate Georgia companies and future entrepreneurs on SBIR and STTR
Assist Georgia companies in identifying appropriate agencies and topics
Provide tips and guidance on SBIR/STTR proposal planning and submission
Facilitate the development of partnerships between SBIR and STTR Award recipients and research collaborators, integrators, and potential customer
Through SBIRGA, we hope we've helped clarify and educate you on SBIR and STTR. We're not finished, so keep coming back. In fact, let us know what you would like to see. Are there topics you would liked covered? Are we missing something you think is important? Let us know!
We're here for you, so we want to make sure we are assisting you in THE best way! Thanks for making it a great year! Keep on reading!
Sincerely, The staff of the SBIR Assistance Program for the State of Georgia:
For Congress to pass a bill involving hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars only takes a week or two.So we will now see if a bill to reauthorize the SBIR program which commits a little over two billion dollars can get passed in four months.Any bets?
The key issue which held up SBIR reauthorization last year was a disagreement between the House and the Senate over whether the program should be changed to allow participation by companies that are majority owned by venture capitalist and also whether SBIR be more in line with VC funding needs.(See May and June 2008 postings in this blog for details.)These major changes in the SBIR program were pushed through the House without input from most Representatives who may not have understood what they were voting on.
A letter urging retention of the current small business eligibility requirements is being circulated in the House of Representatives for member signatures addressed to the Chair of the House Committee on Small Business.If you agree with this position, you could contact your U.S. Representative and urge him to sign this letter.Congressional email addresses are located athttp://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/gacongressdelegation.htm.
To have your Representatives add their name to the list of cosigners, ask them to contact Mitchell Robinson with Rep Ed Markey's office at (202) 225-2836, vog.esuoh.liamnull@nosnibor.llehctim; or Kate Lynch with Rep. Niki Tsongas' office at (202) 225-3411, vog.esuoh.liamnull@hcnyl.etak.
It is reported that the Senate and the House have agreed on a compromise regarding the SBIR program.No, they did not agree on a bill to reauthorize the program, which should have been done last year.They agreed on how long to again extend the program, which is until July 31, 2009.
Can Congress pass a reauthorization of the program in the next four and a half months or will they go for another extension beyond that?It is good that an extension was made, but the current situation of uncertainty caused by repeated short extensions without long-term reauthorization does no one any good.Not the companies who are trying to develop new technologies under the program and not the federal agencies and not the public.
As mentioned in previous posts, if you have any opinions on this, please express them to your Senators and Representative.