Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the Department of Labor's Small Business Administration are often crucial to building an investment portfolio for entrepreneurs creating small businesses in technology sectors. Many of the winning applications for the 21st Century Jobs Fund grants had already focused their energies and efforts on making a successful bid for an SBIR grant. The Center for Entrepreneurship and Commercialization at Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU-CEC) is pleased to offer an intensive workshop on the SBIR application process.

FORTUNE magazine named Dow Corning Corporation to its list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For." This is the first year Dow Corning, which ranked number 55, has been named to FORTUNE’s annual list. "Women excel at this specialty-chemical company, holding 45 percent of top executive slots and 26 percent of managerial positions," FORTUNE magazine’s editors wrote.

The Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center is pleased to present a three-session workshop designed to help you build your business plan. The sessions are designed to discuss and develop an in-depth Business Plan for entrepreneurial ventures. The workshop, which is appropriate for both the expansion of an existing business and the start of a new enterprise, is divided into three sessions to provide time for participants to develop the basic concepts and strategies for their businesses and then concentrate on translating those concepts into specific goals and financial estimates.

If you work in an environment where you must constantly innovate, if you seek to try new things, if you create new processes or systems, you might have been creating intellectual property (IP). In the knowledge economy of the 21st century, you need to know what IP is, how you can protect it, and how to use it to create viable economic enterprises. The Center for Entrepreneurship and Commercialization at Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU CBED) is pleased to offer a "Patents 101" Workshop to address these issues.

Oxazogen, Inc. has obtained federal funding totaling $69,940 to research methods to design new methods of eye and sensor protection. The six-month grant is part of the U.S. Dept. of Defense's Small Business Innovative Research program. Dr. Abhijit Sarkar will lead Oxazogen's efforts in the research, working in collaboration with the US Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) and Aquarious, Inc., a Las Vegas-based photonics company.