SBIR Agency Profile – USDA

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) makes competitively awarded grants that are to qualified small businesses to support high quality, advanced concepts research related to important scientific problems and opportunities in agriculture that could lead to significant public benefit if successful.

BW: Two Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Answer

Every business needs money. As an investor, I’ve developed a good understanding of what to look for in pitches for investment money. Often, what business owners and entrepreneurs seeking money don’t say or don’t know is as telling as what they do say and understand.

Announcing the 2009 Social Innovation Fellows

This morning, PopTech announced the new 2009 class of Social Innovation Fellows, a group of sixteen from around the world who are working on highly disruptive innovations in areas like healthcare, energy, development, climate, education, and civic engagement.

Bendis to appear on three panels at NASVF Converence (Sept 14 through 16) in Oklahoma City

The National Association of Seed and Venture Funds conference in Oklahoma City is Sept. 14-16 at the Skirvin Hilton Hotel. This year is the 16th annual event from NASVF, a global nonprofit that promotes investments in seed and early-stage companies by supporting entrepreneurs and creating jobs from innovative capital programs. The organization connects investors, economic development organizations and tech transfer professionals all looking to create stronger economies and jobs. Presenters and attendees at the two-day event get the chance to share ideas and discuss strategies. The conference regularly draws seed and early-stage fund managers, fund-of-fund managers, state venture capital leaders, angel investment leaders, institutional investors and tech commercialization experts. For an agenda of the conference, including times for sessions and speakers, go to www.nasvf.org/confapp.php.

WSJ: It’s Official: Solyndra Is First Solar Co. Awarded Federal Loan

The Obama administration on Friday used the California site of a planned solar-panel factory to complete the first-ever loan guarantee for a renewable-energy project, a $535 million deal that will allow Solyndra Inc. to create hundreds of jobs.

The announcement, outlined by Vice President Joe Biden and Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a region battered by an auto-factory shutdown, comes as Obama administration officials are hoping to show that investments in clean energy projects can help reverse almost two years of job losses.

WSJ: The Daily Start-Up: Emily Melton Moves Up On Sand Hill Road

Moving Down The Street- Emily Melton toiled for nine years at venture firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, investing in a bunch of Internet start-ups like Meebo Inc. and MyShape Inc. But she never reached partner status. Now, with DFJ downsizing expectations for its newest fund, Melton gets that chance at rival firm Mayfield Fund, which has seen three of its managing directors scale back their roles, VentureWire reports. Melton, 32, gives the Mayfield team a little bit of youth, writes the Bits blog. She’ll have an easy move, considering Mayfield is right down the street from DFJ on Sand Hill Road.

Middle East Entrepreneur Training Inspires Next Generation of Business Leaders

As part of this plan, the President offered several critical areas where we can build partnerships: women’s empowerment, education, technology, and health, to name a few. I want to highlight an especially important topic that I was excited to hear the President address in Cairo: The vital role that entrepreneurship plays in supporting economic development and opportunity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

UN says technology and innovation can help expand education for all

“Technology and innovation are keys to accelerating progress towards the MDGs, particularly in countries that are falling behind,” Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs told the Global Forum on ICT and innovation for Education, referring to the eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.

Obama Education Speech: Innovation, Problem Solving, and Twitter

Look past all the controversy and President Obama's education speech is an evocation of the heart of the American mythology; work hard and you can achieve. The speech is an interesting case study in entrepreneurial role models.

The main thrust of the content is about the fact that while parents, teachers, governments all have a responsibility to help in our education, how we use what we've been given is ultimately a matter of personal responsibility and initiative.

50 Ways to Foster a Sustainable Culture of Innovation

The key is closing the gap between theory and practice. Words are cheap. It's easy to wax poetic about "culture change." It's quite another thing to make it happen.

Science, Technology and Innovation play major role in EU economy

R&D expenditure in the EU27 stable at 1.85% of GDP in 2007 while researchers account for almost 1% of total employment

In 2007, the EU27 spent 229 billion euro on Research & Development 1 (R&D). R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP equalled 1.85% in 2007, stable compared with 2006. Germany (62 bn euro), France (39 bn) and the United Kingdom (37 bn) accounted together for 60% of total R&D expenditure in the EU27 in 2007.

Gartner: Innovation marching on — McKinsey Top 10 Trends and what they mean for IT

McKinsey points out that while corporate R&D and new ventures have taken a hit in the downturn, the opportunities or “head room” remains for innovation. McKinsey recommends companies protect their R&D investments paying for innovation with operational efficiencies, cost cutting and, if necessary, consolidating R&D facilities and programs.

In describing this trend, McKinsey points out that companies benefit from countercyclical investments in innovation, as they tend to have the products, services and operations to outpace their competitors when economic conditions improve. Critics will see pointing out the need for innovation as obvious as market dynamics, the level of competition and customer choice require constant change.

Crowdsourced or Elite Unit Innovation?

A classic dilemma for companies is determining the best way to foster innovation. There are many good books with different approaches. Clayton Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma has influenced a generation’s thinking about innovation. He focuses management and entrepreneurs’ attention on the Big I: disruptive innovation.

INNOVATION AND CONTINUOUS LEARNING ARE INSEPARABLE

The enormous amount of change requires an almost equal speed in learning. Changes are in so many areas like new technologies, new government guidelines, global markets or social media/networking. Also it is crucial to not only check your competition and your customers, but also noncustomers (if you are interested in creating blue oceans…). Fortunately there is so much knowledge available on or via the internet.

BusinessWeek Interview: Google China's Kai-Fu Lee Debuts Innovation Works

Kai-Fu Lee became famous in 2005 when the engineering whiz left Microsoft, where he had created Microsoft Research Asia, to head search giant Google’s operation in China. Microsoft sued, charging that he violated a noncompete agreement, but eventually settled. This time, as Lee leaves Google, he’s sure to avoid a lawsuit, because he’s starting his own venture, which launches Monday morning in Beijing.

Recession fuels innovation in IT sector, say experts

The economic downturn has offered an opportunity to the IT industry in India to evolve innovative strategies and overcome the weak links of the industry.

This was stated by the veterans of the IT industry at Envision 2009, a national level seminar on IT Leadership Strategies: Preparing for the Recovery, organized by the Xavier Institute of Management-Bhubaneswar (XIMB).

Swiss Technology transfer projects approved

The Swiss National Science Foundation has approved 28 additional technology transfer projects for National Centres of Competence in Research in the hopes of stimulating the economy both in the short and medium-term. The projects are being funded by the Swiss federal government as part of its measures to stabilize the economy. With this, a total of 25 million CHF will be invested into developing new technologies.

Innovation Goal - Growth or Strategic Renewal?

What exactly is the goal of your company's innovation efforts? "Oh, that's easy", senior managers usually reply, "We need to grow the business." The line of logic here is relatively simple: "Innovation leads to wealth creation leads to growth" - which, of course, is fair enough. Based on this logic, companies of every stripe are now racing to pursue the kind of innovation that generates organic growth, new revenues, and wider profit margins.

Innovation and Commercialization in Canada

Here’s the round-up of the week in the newsfeeds. Below I highlight my favourite articles of the week from each category.

Today’s Top Pick - “Ubisoft hails Canada as attractive location“. Find out more under Information and communication technology.

WILL CHINA INNOVATION WORK?

I have been watching with a great deal of interest the departure of Kai-Fu Lee from Google to form Innovation Works, which has aggregated a $115 million fund that will be invested in tech start ups.

While $115 million is not enormous anymore by Silicon Valley private equity standards, that amount will go many times further in China and should be viewed as most significant. Some of China's most successful tech pioneers have contributed to Innovation works and according to Mr. Lee, the first order of business will be to "recruit talent."