The Air Force’s Small Business Innovation Research program recently announced its first ever business pitch competition for small firms with fewer than 500 employees. The idea is to provide opportunities for innovative small businesses in the field of secure communications, down-range battlefield operations, and digital technologies.
The pitch day will be held on March 6th “with an available funding pool of $40 million. Interested parties have until Feb. 6 to submit pitches to the program, some 60 of which will be invited for an in-person pitch day” in New York City.
Initial contracts will be worth up to $158,000 for phase one concepts. If those projects are successful, within five months pitch winners “could be looking at much larger contracts, according to Ryan Helbach, chief intrapreneur at the Air Force Research Lab . “
