NJ Main Street Acquisition Support Grant

The Business Assistance Program (BAP) is a matching grant program designed to encourage small businesses to locate, expand or redevelop in the City of Orlando. BAP provides matching funds to new and expanding businesses in the city to assist in off-setting development fees, including sewer and transportation impact fees, building permit fees, and all elements of public right-of-way infrastructure within the city’s jurisdiction that may require new installation, repair, replacement or relocation. Eligible improvements include, but are not limited to, street lighting and fire hydrant installation/relocation, sidewalk repairs; traffic signalization; water and sewer line construction, removal or relocation; curb, gutter, street improvements and landscaping or installation of publicly accessible electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. The Economic Development Department administers and monitors the program, as well as determines eligibility of applicants. The program requires eligible business owners to pay 50 percent of the fees assessed against the business, while the program fund pays the remaining 50 percent up to $20,000.

A grant program for artistic and cultural projects in the city of Seattle. As a small awards program, smART Ventures encourages innovation and widens cultural participation, particularly by individuals, organizations, and communities that may not qualify for other funding programs. Accepting applications year-round, smART Ventures is flexible, inclusive and simple. It provides support ranging from $500 to $1,500, proving that small investments can have big impacts.

The New Jersey Catalyst Research and Development (R&D) Voucher Program provides early-stage New Jersey based companies with vouchers of up to $40,000 to subsidize access to research and development equipment, facilities, and makerspaces at participating "core facilities" across the state. Administered by the New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology (CSIT) in collaboration with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), the program is designed to support early-stage companies in transforming new discoveries from the research stage into commercially viable technologies that attract industry and investor interest. Eligible target areas include advanced manufacturing, advanced transportation and logistics, film and digital media, life sciences (both therapeutic drug development and other applications), non-retail food and beverage, professional and financial services, and technology. Funds are paid directly to participating core facilities (which include New Jersey based two-year and four-year colleges and universities, federal labs, and approved nonprofit organizations) rather than to the business itself, and may be used for the use of facility equipment and technicians for testing and development, as well as training to prepare for independent use of facility equipment. Applicants can apply for multiple vouchers up to a combined cap of $40,000 in any 12-month period. To qualify, applicants must be authorized and in good standing to conduct business in New Jersey (with a current NJ Tax Clearance Certificate listing CSIT), have no more than 50 full-time-equivalent workers, have at least one full-time worker, conduct 50 percent or more of cumulative work hours in New Jersey, generate less than or equal to $5 million in prior calendar year sales revenue (excluding grant revenue), and have received fewer than three total vouchers over the life of the company across all rounds of the Catalyst R&D Voucher Pilot Program and the Clean Tech R&D Voucher Pilot Program combined. Applications are accepted as long as program funds remain available, and applicants must secure a written letter of support, agreed scope of work, and agreed budget from a participating core facility as part of the application process.

The Affordable Commercial Tenanting (ACT) Grant provides Portland property owners and small business owners with reimbursement grants of up to $300,000 to fund tenant improvements, space related soft costs, and permitting support needed to ready a commercial space for opening. Administered by Prosper Portland, the city's economic development agency, the program is designed to facilitate access to affordable commercial space and support inclusive small business growth by helping local entrepreneurs move into ground floor storefronts at a lower cost. The grant is currently available for properties located within the Interstate Corridor and Gateway Regional Center Tax Increment Finance (TIF) Districts, though the program may expand to other areas of the city in the future. To qualify, the property owner must agree to provide the small business with a minimum three year lease that includes at least one of the following: a lease rate 10 to 25 percent below market, a period of rent abatement, or capped rent escalations during the affordable rate period. The property must be ground floor and zoned for commercial or mixed use. Eligible business owners must demonstrate at least two years of business experience and meet criteria related to displacement, limited access to capital, first generation business ownership, or location within a low income census tract. Funds may be used for hard costs to ready the space (such as standard finishes, signage, landscaping, lighting, and security upgrades), up to $25,000 for soft costs like design and permitting fees, and up to $25,000 for predevelopment work. Operating expenses, inventory, and non permanent fixtures are not eligible. Property management companies, mobile businesses, e-commerce businesses, and cannabis businesses are not eligible to apply.

The Biosensing program is part of the Engineering Biology and Health cluster, which also includes 1) the Biophotonics program; 2) the Cellular and Biochemical Engineering program; 3) the Disability and Rehabilitation Engineering program; and 4) the Engineering of Biomedical Systems program. The Biosensing program supports fundamental engineering research in the monitoring, identification and/or quantification of biological analytes and phenomena using innovations that exist at the intersection of engineering, life sciences, and information technology. Projects submitted to the program must advance both engineering and life sciences. The Biosensing program encourages proposals that, in addition to advancing biosensing technology, address critical sensor needs in biomedical research, public health, food safety, agriculture, forensics, environmental protection, and homeland security. Proposals are especially encouraged in areas of critical need: sensing technologies that can enable monitoring and surveillance of the environment and/or individuals for novel infectious agents; platform technologies that can readily be modified as soon as new agents are detected, sequenced, and/or otherwise characterized to enable rapid deployment of sensors in clinics and the environment; and adaptive and/or multiplex sensing technologies that can help the nation prevent the spread of the next global pandemic. Major areas of interest for the program include: -Novel signal transduction principles and mechanisms that enable sensitive and specific biosensors, suitable for measurements in multiple areas; -Design of novel biorecognition elements and appropriately designed transducing systems to enable adaptable and/or reconfigurable operating parameters in response to environmental changes or application needs at levels of device, system, or data analysis; -Development of adaptive and/or evolvable biosensing systems for detection of novel target analytes or analytes under novel conditions; -Novel synthetic biology approaches for the development of cell-free and cell-based biosensors; and -Combining biosensors with artificial intelligence (AI) methods to improve sensor specificity and response time.