The California Community Colleges Partnership for Innovation Program

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program stimulates technological innovation in the private sector by strengthening the role of small business concerns in meeting Federal research and development needs, increasing the commercial application of federally supported research results, and fostering and encouraging participation by socially and economically disadvantaged and women-owned small businesses. An additional opportunity is available to foster partnerships between Community Colleges (CCs), which educate large numbers of underrepresented students, and the small business community. This pilot project is exploring a model to increase the numbers of Small Business/California Community Colleges (SB/CCC) partnerships applying for SBIR/STTR Phase II-CC supplemental funding. SBIR Phase II awardees within the corridor between Sacramento and San Francisco are being identified. At the same time, local community college faculty and student teams are being recruited. This pilot is matching up to 20 SBIR Phase II companies with community college faculty-student teams, and supporting the submission of proposals for supplemental funding to support the research conducted by the faculty-student teams and the Small Business.

The project personnel are conducting marketing outreach and public relations to promote and encourage participation in the program. The process by which companies are identifed, community college teams recruited, and the match facilitated is being carefully documented. It is anticipated that this effort may serve as a national model for developing SB/CCC partnerships and increasing the numbers of partnerships applying to the program.