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Dakota State University Receives National Science Foundation Grant

Madison -- Dakota State University has received a $181,498 grant from the National Science Foundation to foster the development of research and development small businesses in South Dakota. The funding will be used to continue and expand the activities of the South Dakota Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Center at Dakota State University. The program will provide assistance to South Dakota small businesses and entrepreneurs interested in participating in the federal SBIR program and conducting innovative research and development activities.

As a part of the project the South Dakota SBIR Center will assist small businesses to participate in the SBIR program in a variety of ways. Some of the assistance programs include:

• Providing SBIR proposal preparation assistance to South Dakota small businesses.
• A Phase 0 research program to fund preliminary research to support the company's SBIR proposal.
• Business assistance to entrepreneurs and existing technology based businesses.
• Fostering research relationships between small businesses and university researchers.

The SBIR program is a research and development program administered by ten different federal agencies, which provide early stage development funding for innovative ideas with significant social implications or that address problems of interest to the government agency. The two phase program provides funding for small businesses to research and develop these innovative new products or processes.

In 1996 and 1997 South Dakota small businesses have received more the $1.5 million in SBIR research awards to develop innovative new technologies and products. Some of the South Dakota projects include:

• Octa-Aqua-Flex Environmental Systems, Timber Lake South Dakota, is using the SBIR program to develop environmental containment pads for the commercial chemical application industry and a portable decontamination system for the Department of Defense.

• Microconversion Technologies, in Brookings, is developing a lower cost and more accurate humidity sensors and an electronic environmental monitoring system for hog confinement systems.

• ChT Engineering Systems, in Rapid City, is develop new ground probing radar technologies to more effectively identify buried objects or other underground characteristics.

• WinDak Software, in Madison, is developing document management software for rural county governments.

The National Science Foundation project will allow the South Dakota SBIR Center to continue providing assistance to these and other research based companies as well as provide additional assistance in the commercialization of these new products and technologies. For more information, on the SBIR program please contact Dr. Melvin Ustad at the South Dakota SBIR Center at 605-256-5555.

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