GRAND RAPIDS – On January 29, the Michigan Strategic Fund Board approved an additional $1.4 million to be allocated to the Michigan Emerging Technologies Fund managed by the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Center in partnership with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The ETF provides commercialization funding to match federal SBIR/STTR awards for technology based Michigan companies.

The Michigan ETF matches 25 percent of phase I SBIR/STTR awards up to $25 thousand, and 25 percent of phase II SBIR/STTR awards up to $125 thousand. The ETF awards are grants and do not need to be paid back, however, ETF award dollars must be used to help bring Michigan projects to commercialization.

?The ETF awards are proving to be critical to early stage technology companies in their commercialization efforts. They?ve used the ETF grants to hire key employees, protect intellectual property, build out facilities for production, promote their new products at international trade shows, and run alpha and beta testing with new customers,? said ETF Program Manager, Phil Tepley.

Since the MI-SBTDC took over the program in February 2008, it has awarded 34 ETF awards to 27 companies for a total of $1,611,538 with an additional $765,000 set aside as second company payments. The ETF grant recipients report that the program has enabled them to create 38 new full time jobs, retain 41 full time jobs, and hire 18 Michigan based contractors. These companies have raised $1.2 million in third party leverage, and almost $14.5 million in federal SBIR/STTR funding.

?Without MIETF support our company would be at set back at least a full year in the execution of its plans to establish a new nanotechnology manufacturing facility in Michigan,” commented Tom Pinnavaia, President of Claytec.

The Michigan ETF is a 21st Century Jobs Fund Program. The supported projects must advance at least one of Michigan?s four competitive-edge technology areas:

Life sciences

Alternative energy

Advanced automotive, manufacturing and materials

Homeland security and defense

ETF Program Guidelines, FAQ, online applications, and a list of ETF recipients can be found at MIETF.Org

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