Innovation Projects Throughout Oregon will Advance with New Grant Awards
December 21, 2020
Diverse innovation projects across the state are moving forward with new grant funding from Business Oregon and the Oregon Innovation Council (Oregon InC). Oregon InC approved 21 projects through two separate innovation programs, the High Impact Opportunity Projects grant program and Small Business Innovation Research matching grants.
Business Oregon’s matching grants fill needed gaps for companies who have received federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program grants, which are provided to small businesses to conduct research and development before going to full production and sales. Since the federal grants leave gaps in areas critical to getting early-stage companies to becoming viable businesses, Business Oregon’s funds help SBIR recipients keep the projects moving. From 37 proposals, 17 projects were awarded more than $900,000.
“Business Oregon’s SBIR matching grant program has been instrumental in allowing us to continue development of our product during the lulls in alternative financing and investments,” said Rachel Dreilinger, Co-Founder and CEO, NeuraMedica. “This funding has been extremely helpful in covering costs that are not allowed by other grants and has absolutely succeeded in bridging funding gaps during stressful periods when funding is uncertain. We cannot endorse this program enough.”
High Impact Opportunity Projects (HIOP) support the growth of emerging, high-value industry sectors, by providing competitive grants to remove barriers to research and development; advance product development and testing; help commercialize technology; and assist other aspects of industry innovation. From seven proposals, four projects were awarded $1.5 million in funding. The projects range from development of biotech laboratory space to supporting a community co-packing facility for food and beverage manufacturers.
Applications were solicited separately for both programs, and after multiple stages of review, the following companies and organizations have been selected to receive grant awards.
Matching SBIR Grant Awards:
| Organization | Summary | Location | Award |
| Ampere Scientific | Develop and validate of methodology for arc gap measurement in more efficient and effective “super alloy” ingot production. Target markets: energy and aerospace industries. | Albany | $49,405 |
| Emergent Health | Further design and testing of data management and record keeping system for EMTs and firefighters. Regulatory compliance testing of system. Target markets: fire and medical | Springfield | $49,970 |
| Food4All | Validate, build, and deploy farm-to-market system to facilitate small to mid-scale food producer direct-to-customer sales. Target markets: small to mid-scale farms, ranches, and food artisans. | Bend | $49,884 |
| Health Technology Innovation | Develop prototype, testing, and refinement of business model for image processing automation. Target markets: pharmaceutical and medical research institutions. | Beaverton | $50,000 |
| Integrative Economics | Construct prototype system for pest monitoring in farm fields. Lab and field demonstrations with potential customers. Target markets: fruit, tree nut, and vegetable farms, and nursery products. | Portland | $50,000 |
| Microbiome Engineering | Refine prototype design, signal processing improvements, and field testing of real-time water quality monitoring device. Target markets: pulp and paper mills. | Corvallis | $50,000 |
| Miga Motor Company | Design, build, and test a lightweight robotic arm using shape-memory and super-elastic metallic wires. Target markets: automotive and educational robotics. | Silverton | $49,995 |
| Nanovox | Optimize novel nanocomposite material, with design and testing of a 5G antenna from the material. Target market: 5G cell networks. | Beaverton | $25,000 |
| nexTC | Optimize low-cost, more efficient, transparent, conductive oxide material for smart windows. Deposition testing of films with two electrochromic glass manufacturers. Target market: smart windows. | Corvallis | $50,000 |
| Pacific Diabetes | Optimize design and fabrication of evaluation units for partners to test world’s first drug-delivering continuous glucose monitor for managing diabetes. Target markets: diabetics and caregivers. | Portland | $50,000 |
| Parisi Technologies | IP protection, manufacturing, and business development activities for novel composite material. Target markets: defense and aerospace. | Portland | $50,000 |
| Sanitary Green | IP protection and installation and monitoring of modular and scalable household water treatment system. Target market: home construction. | Eugene | $50,000 |
| Stark Street Materials | Initial manufacturing space and IP protection for sterilizable radiation shielding composites. Target markets: medical, dental, veterinary, energy. | Portland | $50,000 |
| Virogenomics BioDev. | Production, testing, and validation of kit for detecting and monitoring indicators of aortic aneurism. Target market: hospitals. | Portland | $26,500 |
| Diatomix | Adapt air filter additive to neutralize airborne biological agents in HVAC systems and market product to customers. Target markets = greenhouses, nurseries, potentially others. | Portland | $100,000 |
| Gadusol Labs | Optimize microbial production of natural sunscreen compound to provide cost model for moving to commercial production. Target market: sunscreen producers. | Corvallis | $100,000 |
| Inherent Targeting | IP protection and further testing and commercialization of nerve-specific fluorescent compound to avoid nerve damage in surgeries. Target market: medical. | Portland | $82,148 |
High Impact Opportunity Project Awards:
| Organization | Summary | Location | Award |
| OBI/OTRADI(Oregon Bioscience Incubator) | Add capacity to support bioscience companies’ ability to stay and grow in Oregon, with 6 wet labs and offices. | Portland | $ 500,000 |
| Portland State Business Accelerator | Add capacity to support bioscience, advanced materials, and clean tech companies in Oregon by upgrading current lab spaces to wet labs. | Portland | $ 288,750 |
| Proxy Foods | Develop co-packing space with complementary business development services for underrepresented food and beverage entrepreneurs. | Portland | $ 500,000 |
| SEDCOR(Strategic Economic Development Corporation) | Develop Enterprise Resource Planning open source software for small and medium-sized Oregon manufacturing companies. | Marion, Polk, & Yamhill Counties | $ 211,250 |
These awards are all contingent on successful contract negotiation between Business Oregon and the grant recipients.
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