EDA ANNOUNCES $15 MILLION TO ADVANCE INNOVATION ACROSS AMERICA

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EDA Update

Monday April 25, 2016

EDA ANNOUNCES $15 MILLION TO ADVANCE INNOVATION ACROSS AMERICA


Potential Regional Innovation Strategies Program Applicants:

Ensuring that entrepreneurs across the nation have access to the tools they need to move their ideas and inventions from their laboratories and garages to the market is a top priority for President Obama and his Administration.

To continue advancing this key priority, today, the Economic Development Administration released the Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) and began accepting applications for the 2016 round of Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) Program funding

In this 2016 round, a total of $15 million in Federal funding is available to create and expand cluster-focused proof-of-concept and commercialization programs and early-stage seed capital funds through the i6 Challenge and the Seed Fund Support (SFS) Grant competition, respectively.  Under this FFO, $13 million is available for i6 Challenge grants and $2 million is available for SFS grants.

The i6 Challenge grants help regions build capacity for turning ideas into products and ultimately into viable companies that create jobs. The program was launched in 2010 as part of the White House’s Startup America Initiative and is now in its sixth iteration.

The Seed Fund Support Grants (SFS) competition addresses another need of growth-oriented entrepreneurs: access to capital. Investments made through this program support feasibility, planning, formation, or launch of equity-based seed capital funds that invest in startups during their earliest, critical stages.

To learn more about this year’s Regional Innovation Strategies program, EDA strongly encourages potential applicants to register for and attend the post-launch webinar, hosted by SSTI, on May 5, 2016, at 2:00pm Eastern Time.  During this webinar, EDA staff will present a detailed overview of the 2016 RIS FFO and will take questions.  This webinar will be made available online after the event.

For potential applicants, please note that the application period is open for 60 days and will close at 11:59pm Eastern Time on June 24, 2016.

To stay up-to-date on the latest RIS news, please sign up for EDA’s newsletter.

The RIS program is managed by EDA’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE), which is dedicated to helping communities build and develop innovation- and entrepreneurship-based ecosystems that are the foundation of today’s and tomorrow’s growing, resilient economies.