Hello America’s innovators! As the voice for our nation’s 30 million small businesses and innovative startups, it is my great honor to welcome you to the SBA’s 2021 National SBIR Week.
This year’s SBIR Week is particularly important. As we emerge from this pandemic and economic crisis, we’re turning to America’s innovators to help us rebuild and reimagine our future economy.
This past year has been challenging on so many levels. Millions of small businesses have struggled to stay afloat.
But through it all, we saw the incredible entrepreneurial spirit that built this country come alive. We saw our small businesses pivot and adapt to meet the needs of a marketplace that changed in ways no one ever could have imagines. And we saw our innovators step up to the plate with new ideas and new approaches, using SBIR funding to solve global problems and bring critical products to market.
I’m proud to say that SBIR funding contributed to tests, therapies, and vaccines for COVID-19 that are now helping us to defeat this virus.
Our SBIR and STTR programs, also known as America’s Seed Fund, is truly life-changing and life-saving.
Since it was founded in 1982, SBIR has delivered billions of dollars in capital to small innovators and supported the work of hundreds of thousands of scientists, engineers, technologists and other innovators.
As we begin to imagine our post-COVID economy, the SBIR program will play a crucial role in ensuring that America’s best ideas can go from the lab to the market – creating products and services that will have an impact in areas such as healthcare, clean energy, food security, cybersecurity and more.
Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework and President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, we will make unprecedented investments in infrastructure, innovation, R&D, manufacturing and supply chains, as well as workforce and the care economy. We want to ensure that all small businesses are ready to tap into these opportunities, particularly our underserved entrepreneurs who suffered disproportionately during COVID, in large part due to persistent and historic barriers to capital, markets and networks.
The SBA stands ready to position all our innovative startups for growth by helping to support a strong ecosystem through our Growth Accelerator Fund Competition, and its newly launched companion regional network -- SBIR Catalyst. And we will continue to partner with state and local partners through FAST, our Federal and State Technology Partnership program, which is designed to empower the innovation ecosystem at the local level and help underserved communities gain access to SBIR and STTR.
As President Biden often says, great ideas come from anywhere and everywhere. Supporting all our nation’s innovative startups and increasing equitable access to federal research funding is a priority for the SBA and the administration, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it will build a stronger future for all of us.
America still is the epicenter of new ideas, new ways of thinking and new ways of doing.
You all are here today because you embody that American spirit of innovation and because you’re supporting the entrepreneurs creating our future.
Because of you, we are lifting our communities, our nation and our world in new and profound ways.
Because of you, we are confronting seemingly insurmountable challenges and charting a new path forward.
You are a vital part of the small business engine that drives our economy.
My job, the SBA’s job, is to create an environment that keeps you innovating and supports you at every step as you take your idea, your research and commercialize it, launching the next great product or service. Through the SBIR program, and the support programs SBA manages, we will continue to ensure science reaches all people and supports equitable outcomes.
But remember, we aren’t the key to your success. You are. The American entrepreneurial spirit that lives inside of you drives you to follow your dreams wherever they may take you.
So, get out there, network, connect and innovate. And take advantage of all the connections and collaborations this event has to offer. The SBA is here to be your partner as you take your ideas to the world.
Together, we will forge a new path toward a brighter future. Thank you.