Aerodyne Research, Inc. expresses concern with the proposed changes to the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) federal R&D programs. The SBIR program, created by Congress in 1982 and the STTR program, created 10 years later to complement the SBIR program are designed to stimulate technology development by small businesses helping the government meet federal R&D needs. Both programs operate under the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Aerodyne has been an active participant of SBIR since 1983 having invented and commercialized many technologies critical to addressing environmental and air quality concerns supporting program goals for different federal agencies and forming strong collaborations with university groups nation-wide. Revenues from the commercial sales of technologies developed with SBIR seed-funding have helped Aerodyne grow as a Massachusetts based small business. The current SBIR/STTR programs will expire September 30, 2025 and new legislation has been proposed that will significantly alter how the programs operate causing a detrimental impact to many small businesses that contribute to SBIR/STTR goals. 

On March 5, 2025, the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee held a hearing entitled, “Golden Age of American Innovation: Reforming SBIR-STTR for the 21st Century“ which laid out the new proposed legislation.  The new Bill, known as the INNOVATE Act would effectively make these federal program inaccessible to Aerodyne and many other small business across the nation, limiting the government’s access to these innovation engines.

Aerodyne works cooperatively with the New England Innovation Alliance (NEIA), a coalition of small high-tech companies located in the New England area. NEIA has submitted a statement for the record to the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship arguing that the proposed INNOVATE Act would severely undermine the research goals of many federal agencies (DoD, DoE, NOAA, EPA, USDA, etc) each with unique technology needs.

Aerodyne Research supports the New England Innovation Alliance’s promotion of SBIR/STTR reauthorization without dramatic changes to the character of this highly successful program.