America's Seed Fund: NSF SBIR/STTR Info Session with Alastair Monk
America's Seed Fund powered by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) funds startups in the development of deep technologies, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact.
Funding for startups up to $2M — NSF takes no equity, and you keep control of your team, your direction, and your intellectual property.
Who this is for: UT faculty PIs, postdocs, graduate students, and early-stage founders in the Austin area with a technology that needs R&D funding. You don't need a company to submit a Project Pitch, which is the first step — funding does require a U.S.-based for-profit company, majority-owned by a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, with fewer than 500 employees.
What we'll cover:
The Project Pitch: technology innovation, technical objectives and challenges, market opportunity, and company and team
How the money is staged: Phase I up to $305,000, Phase II up to $1.25 million, Phase IIB up to $500,000
Eligibility, including the STTR route for a faculty PI staying at the university
What makes a Project Pitch competitive, and the common reasons one gets turned down
Live Q&A
Speaking: Alastair Monk, PhD, Program Director, NSF SBIR/STTR. Alastair joined NSF in 2019 after a decade in medical startups — vice president of medical products at Cupron, founder of the medical-startup consultancy Chrysalides Consultants, and head scientist at Biocontrol (now Armata Pharmaceuticals). He holds a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Bath.
Format: Virtual — 30 minutes of presentation, 30 minutes of Q&A. Session will be recorded and shared with registrants.
SBIR is the Small Business Innovation Research program; STTR is Small Business Technology Transfer — federal programs that fund early R&D without taking equity. More at seedfund.nsf.gov.
Hosted by the Texas Innovation Center at Discovery to Impact, UT Austin.