About MNSBIR, Inc.

MNSBIR, Inc. is an independent, private, non-profit organization with its mission to assist startups and small businesses to secure non-dilutive funding from America’s Seed Fund – the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

America’s Seed Fund awards funding to develop your technology and chart a path toward commercialization. The federal government invests in your solution and gives you the freedom to run your business according to your vision. The goal of any successful SBIR/STTR project is commercialization of your innovation, which means bringing it to market for use by industry, consumers or the federal government.

• Our mission is to assist seed, emerging and existing small businesses to secure SBIR/STTR investments to transform their high risk, high-impact technologies into marketable products and services.
• Our support is free and confidential aimed at increasing your competitiveness.
• Our knowledge, experience and relationships are valuable to new applicants.  We know first-hand how complex and difficult it is to navigate the federal R&D arena. With decades of demonstrated knowledge and connections across the 11 participating federal agencies, we make the journey less stressful for qualifying firms to navigate this competitive and complex environment.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, also known as America’s Seed Fund, are one of the largest sources of early-stage capital for technology commercialization in the United States. These programs enable US-owned and operated small businesses to conduct research and development that has a strong potential for commercialization.

IMPACT: Since 1982, more than $938M has been competitively awarded through the SBIR/STTR Programs to 400+ plus companies across key industry sectors (medical, defense, energy, agriculture, education, environmental, etc.).

Watch this short video about America’s Seed Fund

The SBIR program, as established by law and reauthorized under Public Law 114-328, Section 1834 and Public Law 115-232, is intended to meet the following goals: stimulate technological innovation in the private sector; strengthen the role of small business in meeting federal research and development needs; increase the private sector commercialization of innovations developed through federal research and development funding; and foster and encourage participation in innovation and entrepreneurship by women and socially or economically disadvantaged persons.

The STTR program aims to foster technology transfer through cooperative research and development between small businesses and research institutions. Federal agencies with extramural research budgets over $100 million are required to set-aside 3.2% of their extramural research budget to the SBIR program, and those with extramural research budgets over $1 billion are required to set aside an additional 0.45% to the STTR program.

MNSBIR, Inc. is funded in part through a Federal and State Technology Partnership Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration, a grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, the University of Minnesota, Technology Commercialization, and the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship, the Mayo Clinic, Office of Entrepreneurship, and in-kind support from Launch Minnesota.   Click the logos below to visit and learn more about each organization.