Previous Features

DoD Announces 2005 SBIR Solicitation

By the Defense Alliance of Minnesota Staff

The Department of Defense (DoD) 2005.1 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Solicitation was released on November 1 st. This listing includes hundreds of SBIR topics out there that represent urgent needs for our nation’s defense effort. By law, 2.5% of DoD’s budget will go only to “small” firms (less than 500 employees) for these R&D efforts – though medium and large defense firms routinely partner with small companies and entrepreneurs nationwide to bring innovations to the market. Examples of topics that will have R&D money applied include: “All Weather Featured Based Combat Identification (Navy),” “Carbon Monoxide Detector Kit (Air Force),” and “Renewable Electric Energy Source for Special Operations Force (SOF) Maritime Combatant Craft (Special Operations Command).”

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Defense Alliance of Minnesota Extends its Successful Drive for Soldiers.

By Chip Laingen, Facilitator, Defense Alliance of Minnesota

St. Paul , MN , 10/27/04 – Because of overwhelming support for its drive to benefit deployed service members, the Defense Alliance of Minnesota recently extended the deadline on its three-month “AnySoldier.US” program to December 1st. 80 boxes of supplies from “home” were collected through donations from 20 companies, organizations and individuals around the Twin Cities. The drive was undertaken to support the national organization AnySoldier, Inc. which has over 579 contacts that provide support to over 29,000 service members in Iraq , Afghanistan , and many other areas around the world. Originally scheduled to end in early October, the drive netted a last-minute flow of support and the total shipment will now easily exceed 150 boxes.

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Top Ten Reasons to Consider SBIR/STTR Research and Development Funding.

By Pat Dillon, Executive Director of MPI, Inc.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program was established when President Reagan signed into law the "Small Business Innovation Development Act," which required federal agencies with research and development budgets of $100 million or more, to set aside not less than 2/10th of one percent of that amount for the first SBIR program. Today, the program now requires agencies to set aside 2.5 percent of their budgets, which now total $2 billion in funding to conduct basic, applied, exploratory and engineering research and development efforts.

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General Dynamics-AIS Hosts 2nd Defense Industry Roundtable

By the Defense Alliance of Minnesota Staff

11 August 2004: Minnesota’s 2nd annual Defense Industry Roundtable was held on Wednesday at General Dynamics-Advanced Information Systems (GD-AIS) Division in Bloomington. The Roundtable was chaired by GD-AIS Vice President Jim Stockdale, and Congressman Martin Sabo (D-5 th District of Minnesota.)

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Why a Defense Alliance?

By the Defense Alliance of Minnesota Staff

The Defense Alliance of Minnesota is the next logical step in an evolution to better organize the state’s diverse industries that contribute important products and services to the armed forces.  “It’s all about networking, teaming, building relationships,” said Chip Laingen, Facilitator for the Alliance.  “Minnesota has such a robust and diverse economy that can bring unique solutions to the table for our men and women in harm’s way… but it takes an ongoing dialogue and connections among the many players who can get it done.”

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