The U.S. Congress reauthorized the Small Business Innovation Research funding program for six more years on Friday, allowing venture-backed small companies a greater share of the multi-million program.
Under SBIR, federal agencies such as  departments of Agriculture, Defense, Commerce, Education and Energy allocate 2.5 percent of their budgets to fund innovation projects at small companies that pertain to that federal agency’s needs. Over the past 10 years, Connecticut companies received $257 million in SBIR awards.
This year’s reauthorization was under contention because Congress was considering allowing venture-backed companies to receive up to 45 percent of the total SBIR funding. Small businesses without venture funding cried foul claiming that would allow large corporation to receive SBIR funding through smaller subsidiaries.
Congress ultimately decided to open up 25 percent of SBIR funding to venture-back companies from some federal agencies and 15 percent from others. The reauthorization was passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.
