Participate in the study

Access the SBIR Inclusion Discovery data presented at the summit.

Goal

The goal of the SBIR Inclusion Study is to understand barriers to participation in America’s Seed Fund. The work focuses on collecting data from Black and Brown applicants to the program. This includes leading customer discovery activities to engage directly with stakeholders to understand their challenges, and leveraging survey instruments to capture feedback at scale.

Learn more about the study

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program was established to stimulate technological innovation, utilize small business to meet Federal research and development (R&D) needs, foster and encourage participation in innovation and entrepreneurship by women and socially or economically disadvantaged persons, and increase private sector commercialization of innovations derived from Federal R&D.

Despite a mandate to encourage participation by women and “disadvantaged persons”, to fulfill its vision as “America’s Seed Fund”, the program must do a better job of identifying and funding underrepresented people of color and their associated ventures.

The SBIR Inclusion Study is focused on identifying barriers to participation by Black and Brown applicants to improve program design and drive increases in participation.

The study is being led by guru innovation group, LLC.

Learn more about the SBIR program

Want to Hear From Us?