Have you as an entrepreneur missed out on an opportunity to share in $551 million worth of federal grants over the past decade?

​Startups and emerging entrepreneurial companies across North Carolina seeking funding should be sure to check on the availability of these federal grants. Why? A recent review of data finds that N.C. firms are winning more dollars even as national grants decline.

Funds to N.C. ventures from a variety of federal agencies ranging from the National Science Foundation to the Department of Defense surged to $51 million in 2015, ranking the state 12th nationally, according to data compiled by John Ujvari, a long-time program specialists with the North Carolina’s Small Business and Technology Development Center.

  • VIDEO: Learn more about the grant process at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNwsg_PR90w

N.C. companies received 120 unique awards, including 71 Phase 1 grants and 49 Phase 2 awards. Funds came through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

Ujvari has worked with the SBIR program for 15 years, and he points out that the data clearly shows “SBIR/STTR continues to gain traction as early funding source.”

North Carolina’s climb from 15th as a state in 2005 to 12th last year includes an increase in total grants but, more importantly, an even bigger increase in funding. Plus, N.C. firms are receiving more attention from the NSF.

“Comparing 2015 data with those of a decade ago demonstrates significant improvement since 2005,” he reports.

“Specifically, the number of awards received is up 10 percent and the total dollars received is up 1 percent. The number of awards from DoD and NIH have remained relatively constant (31 and 58 respectively), while the number of awards from NSF has doubled over the same period to 14.”

North Carolina also is bucking a national trend of decline.

“Nationally during the period of 2005 to 2015, the total number of awards has declined by 26 percent and total dollars awarded have declined by 18 percent, $2.3 billion in 2005 to $1.87 billion in 2015,” Ujvari notes.

And the cash coming to North Carolina adds up.

“The total dollars awarded in the period of 2005 to 2015 was $551 million,” he points out. “Over the entire life of the program over $800 million has been awarded to NC companies via 1,700 Phase 1 and 770 Phase 2 awards.”

So why is North Carolina seeing more funding?

We’ll explore that in our next report.