UW and Wyoming SBDC Network to Receive $200K FAST Grant

The Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network will receive a $200,000 Federal and State Technology (FAST) grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

FAST's objective is to improve outcomes for underserved communities by increasing participation from woman-owned, rural-based, or socially or economically disadvantaged small businesses through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, which are known as America's Seed Fund. FAST organizations work locally and provide person-to-person support and training that increases the probability of success for entrepreneurs and small businesses pursuing SBIR or STTR contracts and grants.

The Wyoming SBDC Network offers business expertise to help Wyoming residents think about, launch, grow, reinvent or exit their business. The Wyoming SBDC Network is hosted by the University of Wyoming with state funds from the Wyoming Business Council and funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. SBA.

"We are excited to leverage the SBA FAST funding to further support Wyoming's small businesses in accessing the SBIR/STTR opportunities. This funding will allow us to expand our outreach; provide more personalized technical assistance; and help our state's entrepreneurs bring innovative technologies to market," says Jill Kline, state director of the Wyoming SBDC Network. "The knowledge of our team and support it can provide to entrepreneurs can increase the chances of success. A win for our entrepreneurs is a win for the state."

Apart from one year, Kline says the Wyoming SBDC Network has been the recipient of a FAST grant every year since 2001, when the FAST grant program began.

In all, the U.S. SBA issued 49 grants -- up to $200,000 each -- this year to organizations supporting startups through specialized training, mentoring and technical assistance under the FAST Partnership Program. The program provides awards for a base period of 12 months, plus four optional continuation periods of 12 months each.

"FAST funding, which fuels innovation to keep America competitive globally, has doubled under the Biden-Harris administration. At a time when we are seeing historic highs in our entrepreneurial activity with a small-business boom, investing in America's innovative startups is a top priority," says Isabel Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. SBA. "America's Seed Fund, powered by the SBA and fueled by 11 federal agencies' SBIR and STTR programs, is the largest source of early-stage funding in the world. With FAST, we have now expanded our entrepreneurial ecosystem to nearly every state so that entrepreneurs with great ideas can invent it, commercialize it and build it with America's Seed Fund in every corner of America."

For more information, call Kline at (307) 766-3405 or email [email protected].