Take It for Granted Need cash to develop your latest high-tech product? There's probably an SBIR grant for you.
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Every TV police drama has one-a lab full of expensive equipmentto analyze mysterious powders or fibers from a crime scene. Lookshigh-tech, right? Not compared to a new device developed byDeltaNu ofLaramie, Wyoming. The company's new hand-held device, calledInspector Raman, sniffs out substances from cocaine to anthraxfaster than you can say CSI: Miami.
How did a tiny company in Wyoming develop this breakthroughtechnology? Dr. Keith Carron, a chemistry professor and co-founderof DeltaNu, says the R&D funds came from the government'sSmall Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants. Along the way,DeltaNu used these same grants to develop a string of other labmachines now sold to police departments, universities and othercustomers worldwide.
In addition to sparking nearly a million dollars in productsales, these grants have turned DeltaNu into a multimillion-dollarcompany. "All in all, we've received over $3.7 million [ingrants] over six years," says Carron, 46.
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