seCTerRise $10,000 Grant

The purpose of this program is to foster greater economic development activity in Texas by encouraging and enabling veteran woman-owned small businesses to undertake new and innovative projects. Five – $5,000 grants for a total of $25,000 are available for this round of funding.

A new $3.6 million loan and grant program will assist small business with filling vacant storefronts Downtown. These loans will provide capital to underserved markets for those who experience barriers to accessing traditional banking services. Loan amounts will between $25,000-$100,000 with a 4% interest rate for qualifying businesses. In addition, those who qualify for the loan will also receive a grant of $25,000 from the City to support their launch.

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.

This grant program is intended to help Connecticut supply chain companies with the adoption and integration of IoT solutions. The program will provide matching grants up to $25,000 for digital hardware, sensors, platforms, and related third-party integration services. Project proposals that fall under any of the Industrial 4.0 technology groups: Industrial IoT, Model-Based Definition, Extended Reality, and Adaptive Automation will be considered for funding. The goal of this program is to ensure that the Connecticut supply chain is positioned to implement modern digital manufacturing tools so that they can continue to compete favorably against any manufacturing sector in the world!

Provides funds to businesses through the four Ben Franklin Technology Partners for access to capital, business expertise, technology commercialization services to advance the development of new technologies and for the generation, conservation, and transportation of alternative and clean energy.