With the assistance provided by the SBA FAST (Federal and State Technology) Program, the SBA Growth Accelerator Fund Competition and Innovate Alabama, The Catalyst was able to provide more resources toward training and technical assistance to small business with new innovations. In FY2025 we launched deeper training on Federal grants available through SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) and STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) and held our first SBIR Proposal Lab. The Lab was broken into 2 stages. Stage one included several introductory workshops and how to write a Pitch, focusing on submitting an NSF pitch. Companies with a well-thought-out pitch were invited into Stage Two, which was an intensive series of six full-day workshops, hosted in collaboration with OST Global Solutions. Workshop topics included proposal content development, speed writing, budgeting, commercialization, and final proposal submission. These workshops also featured subject matter experts, including speakers from the Department of Defense, DARPA and NASA. We also supported other small businesses interested in pursuing funding opportunities through one-on-one coaching The Catalyst trained 780 unique clients at 23 workshops. We received 53 completed applications for the SBIR Proposal Lab. All applicants were invited to a pre-coaching session/assessment to gauge their progress and assess their alignment with the program. 31 Companies were invited to join the Lab and 27 companies accepted and participated in two live full day workshops. 14 companies completed a Pitch/Concept paper and moved forward to the Stage Two of the Lab to begin working on proposals. 90 clients in total were coached on their innovation and funding opportunities. 9 clients were awarded SBIR supplement awards from Innovate Alabama and 22 total SBIR applications were submitted to Federal Agencies. The Completion of this Lab marked a critical milestone in our mission to support Alabama-based innovators in accessing federal R&D funding. Interested in learning more? Contact us at info@catalystcenter.org.
