Sens. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, and Cory Gardner, R-Colorado, reintroduced the Support Startup Businesses Act, which would allow awardees of federal research and development grants to use a portion of that funding to create a startup business.
Specifically, the bill authorizes Small Business Innovation Research program awardees to allocate up to 5 percent of their awards for activities that are critical to building businesses, including services such as market validation, intellectual property protection, market research and business model development. Currently, the SBIR program offers very limited financial support to awardees for commercialization activities.
