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Dr. Sanderson, an associate professor in the College of Medicine and the School of Allied Health Professions, qualified for the federal funding program because aside from being a UNMC researcher, he also had his own company, Prommune.
STTR is a federally-funded program meant to stoke collaboration between private businesses and public institutions. It helped Dr. Sanderson support preliminary research findings, which later allowed him to qualify for more funding, including an RO1 grant from the National Institutes of Health.
“STTR funding is a good mechanism for obtaining external funding,” Dr. Sanderson said. “It is another avenue for funding that a lot of people may not have thought of.”
UNeMed, UNMC’s licensing and marketing arm, will host a presentation on STTR and Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR), another federal-funding program aimed at cultivating public-private collaboration, on Friday at 12:30 p.m. in the Durham Research Center, Room 1005.
SBIR and STTR are three-phase, competitive grant programs that invest more than $2.2 billion annually in federal research funds in small businesses with the intention of stimulating small business technological innovation and cutting-edge research to meet that nation’s critical scientific and engineering needs.
Late last year, the University of Nebraska announced it would take a leadership role in enhancing the program’s prominence in the state.
“In 2004, Nebraska ranked 40th in the country in total dollars received from SBIR awards,” Gov. Dave Heineman said in a news release. “We received just nine grants totaling $6 million. The median number of awards for a state is 40, so we clearly have a tremendous opportunity to grow funding opportunities for innovative research.”
When he first applied for STTR funding, Dr. Sanderson said he was flying blind. He knew of few others who had sought STTR funding, so just getting through the application process itself was an adventure, he said.
“We had a lot of questions and didn’t know where to seek answers,” Dr. Sanderson said. “Today, we are a little more informed. That said, I believe there are still individuals at UNMC who could benefit from these programs who may not know about them.”
Because the programs aren’t as well known as more traditional funding programs, UNMC researchers may find it a bit easier to secure funding through them than through standard avenues such as RO1 grants, Dr. Sanderson said.
“Securing funding is never easy, but these programs are not as congested as more traditional grant programs,” he said.
Drawing attention to such funding sources is a good way to broaden an institution’s base of research support, said Steven Hinrichs, M.D., who has made expanding funding opportunities a keystone of his efforts as the College of Medicine’s new senior associate dean for research development.
“UNMC researchers who have their own companies or are affiliated with private companies would benefit from learning more about these programs,” Dr. Hinrichs said. “These are the types of opportunities we should pursue when we speak of broadening our funding portfolios.”
UNMC researchers are doing work that could qualify for this funding, said James Linder, M.D., president of UNeMed. The goal of Friday’s presentation is to make sure researchers know about these funding sources and how to access them.
“The session will provide a map of important avenues for individuals interested in expanding their research funding,” Dr. Linder said.