West Chester Spark Grants

The Arch Grants Startup Competition awards early-stage startups with $75,000 in equity-free grant funding — plus an additional $25,000 for relocation costs — in exchange for headquartering their business in St. Louis, Missouri for at least one year. Administered by Arch Grants, a St. Louis-based nonprofit, the competition conducts a worldwide search for innovative, scalable, and job-creating startups and evaluates applications through a panel of more than 400 industry experts from the St. Louis community and beyond. In addition to the cash grant, awardees gain eligibility for follow-on Growth Grants funding of up to $100,000, along with a la carte programming, fundraising support, talent acquisition assistance, exclusive discounts, and access to the Arch Grants network. The competition champions founders with idea-stage to pre-Series A companies, innovative and scalable business models, technology-enabled solutions, and diverse founding teams. To receive the grant, companies must locate their headquarters in the City of St. Louis for at least one year, have 51% of the founding team (or one founder and 51% of the team) living in St. Louis for the program year, and have at least one founder working on the company as their primary or full-time professional role.

The Indiana Farm Bureau Grant for Women-Owned Agricultural Small Businesses awards up to five $1,000 grants to women-owned agriculture-related small businesses in Indiana to fund training and professional development opportunities, technological enhancements, or upgraded equipment. Administered by Indiana Farm Bureau (INFB), a nonprofit organization that serves Indiana farmers, agribusinesses, and rural communities, the program was launched in celebration of the International Year of the Woman Farmer and aligns with INFB's priority to create incentives for rural entrepreneurship and agricultural diversification. To qualify, applicants must own and operate an agriculture-related small business located in Indiana. Grant recipients are recognized at Indiana Farm Bureau's Harvest Dinner, an event celebrating women in agriculture that includes a keynote address and networking with peers, industry leaders, and INFB partners.

The Comcast Innovation Fund was created to support technology and public policy research that contributes to the betterment of the Internet, and the continued evolution of connectivity products and services. The fund provides grants to technologists, researchers, and academics to support Internet- and connectivity-focused projects within the fund’s areas of interest, which are updated annually.

The Disability and Rehabilitation Engineering program is part of the Engineering Biology and Health cluster, which also includes: 1) the Biophotonics program; 2) the Biosensing program; 3) the Cellular and Biochemical Engineering program; and 4) the Engineering of Biomedical Systems program. The Disability and Rehabilitation Engineering program supports fundamental engineering research that will improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities through the development of new theories, methodologies, technologies, or devices. Disabilities could be developmental, cognitive, hearing, mobility, visual, selfcare, independent living, or other. Proposed projects must advance knowledge regarding a specific human disability or pathological motion or understanding of injury mechanisms. Research may be supported that is directed toward the characterization, restoration, rehabilitation, and/or substitution of human functional ability or cognition, or to the interaction between persons with disabilities and their environment. Areas of particular interest are neuroengineering, rehabilitation robotics, brain-inspired assistive or rehabilitative systems, theoretical or computational methods, and novel models of functional recovery including the development and application of artificial physiological systems. Emphasis is placed on significant advancement of fundamental engineering knowledge that facilitates transformative outcomes. The DARE Program encourages high-risk/high-reward proposals that surpass incremental technological improvements. The DARE Program also encourages participatory design and the inclusion of trainees with disabilities as part of the proposed research or broader impacts. Innovative proposals outside of the above specific interest areas may be considered. NSF does not support clinical trials; however, feasibility studies involving human volunteers may be supported if appropriate to the project objectives. The development and application of artificial physiological systems that do not model functional recovery and instead improve fundamental understanding of physiological and pathophysiological processes would be appropriate for EBMS. Furthermore, the DARE program does not support proposals having as their central theme commercialization of a product. Small businesses seeking early stage R&D funding for product development are encouraged to contact the NSF SBIR/STTR program in the America's Seed Fund within the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP).

The KeyBank Foundation is investing $300,000 to support small businesses and commercial property owners located in the city of Rochester’s EMMA and Beechwood neighborhoods. The program will provide grants ranging from $2,500 to $10,000 for capital improvements such as façade upgrades, lighting, signage, interior repairs, accessibility enhancements and safety improvements—projects designed to immediately improve the appearance, functionality and walkability of neighborhood business corridors.