Today, U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said the Department of Energy will award 105 grants totaling $116 million to 92 small businesses in 31 states. These awards include one in Pennsylvania totaling $1 million. Funded through DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, today’s selections are for Phase II research and development.
“As our country reopens, small businesses will play a critical role in the nation’s economic recovery,” said Brouillette. “I am pleased the Department can aid in this recovery through the SBIR and STTR grant programs, which are helping spur growth by providing meaningful financial investment for innovative energy and science R&D at American small businesses.”
Small businesses that demonstrated technical feasibility for innovations during their Phase I grants competed for funding for prototype or processes development during Phase II. In addition, prior Phase II awardees competed for second or third Phase II awards to continue prototype and process development. The median Phase II award is $1,100,000 for a period of two years.
The Pennsylvania grant was awarded to ChemImage Sensor Systems for: Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation. Rapid Multi-Modal Microscopy Feature Correlation Tool (RM-MFCT). The proliferation of nuclear materials may be prevented through forensic analysis of a wide range of overlapping sensor data, collected from sensors as disparate as microscopes and reconnaissance cameras. Because the amount of data far exceeds the ability to manually correlate features common across these images, ChemImage Sensor Systems is developing a software tool that can rapidly, robustly, and accurately correlate and register common features present in images collected from diverse sensors.
The SBIR and STTR programs were created by Congress to leverage small businesses to advance innovation at federal agencies. Additional information on the DOE SBIR and STTR programs is available at the SBIR/STTR Programs Office:
https://www.energy.gov/science/sbir/small-business-innovation-research-and-small-business-technology-transfer.
