Tuesday, February 15, 2011

SBA Recognizes SoCal Firms

The U.S. Small Business Administration honored a number of local small businesses and individuals at the White House today, who are participants in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The SBIR is a funding program which provides research and development dollars to small businesses and startups. Firms recognized by the SBA with the Tibbets Award included Aerius Photonics in Ventura; Opto-Knowledge Systems of Torrance, Space Micro, Inc. in San Diego, and Wyatt Technology, in Santa Barbara. The SBA also gave a "Hall of Fame" award to eight companies, including San Diego's Qualcomm and carlsbad-based ViaSat, as previous SBA grant recipients. The SBA said that recipients were selected based on economic impact of their technological innovation, and on whether they have met federal research and development needs, encouraged diverse participation in technological innovation, and increased the commercialization of federal research.