This award will support a symposium on the National Science Foundation (NSF) small business programs, to be held at the MassChallenge facilities in Boston, Massachusetts in November 2013. The workshop will feature presentations from NSF program staff, current and former NSF awardees from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, and invited thought leaders in the entrepreneurial and investment communities, and will involve a large number of entrepreneurs, students, and researchers interested in innovation. One primary goal of this symposium is to bring together the research and business communities and make entrepreneurs aware of the resources available to them via these programs. The workshop will be bolstered by MassChallenge's existing network of early-stage companies, and will leverage existing social and traditional media channels to ensure maximum visibility.
This event has the potential to promote awareness and deepen knowledge of NSF?s innovation programs within the extensive startup ecosystem to which MassChallenge has access Additionally, this event offers the possibility for future collaboration among these participants by providing a networking environment for entrepreneurs and innovators from different communities. This outreach across a broad and diverse range of industries and backgrounds will also extend to groups who are typically underrepresented in science: 30% of the participating companies were founded by women, and 31% of the participants are from underrepresented groups. By educating entrepreneurs about the resources available to them via the NSF, these entrepreneurs will be empowered to increasingly apply their science and technology insights to solve some of society's greatest challenges.
In 2013, the National Science Foundation granted MassChallenge a $50,000 SBIR grant to execute a symposium to help raise the profile of the NSF SBIR program in Boston tech and entrepreneurial community. This symposium was hosted at the MassChallenge space in the Innovation District. The symposium consisted of a series of panels featuring NSF officers, reviewers, and MassChallenge alumni and successful grantees. Panels were followed by kenote speaker Deb Roy (Cheif Scientist of Twitter, CEO and founder of Bluefin Labs). Also in attendance was Ben Schrag (Program Director of SBIR program, NSF), Vitor Pampolana (Co-Founder and CTO, EyeNetra), Andrew Mallon (CEO, Calista Therapeutics), Ted Hannibal (NSF reviewer), Dave Spencer (NSF reviewer and Chairman of the Board wTE Corporation), and Brynn Leggett Detwiller (Development Manager, Artaic). There were about 75 people in attendance and the event also made 650,561 impressions on social media (5 times larger than average) The symposium successfully provided tactical education and provided one-on-one support for potential grantees by connecting them with NSF reviewers and program officers. We were also able to successfully expose a large audience of potential grantees to the opportunities available via NSF funding. There were many networking opportunities throughout the day during breakfast and lunch hours of the program. Over 74% of attendees thought the NSF Overview and Reviewer panel were very informative and 94% wished there were similar programs available. MassChallenge sees an opportunity to form a sustained partnership with NSF that is focused on educating the Boston entrepreneurial community about startups and entrepreneurship by evaluating the profile of the WSF SBIR program. This will poise NSF to re-define the way government agencies partner with the startup community.
