NOAA has invested in 23 small businesses developing innovative technologies in technical areas including climate adaptation and mitigation, weather-ready nation, healthy oceans, and resilient coastal communities and economies. These grants were awarded under the agency’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, and total over nearly $3.4 million.
Each selected small business will receive up to $150,000 to test the feasibility of their technologies over the next 6 months. 57% of the awards will go to first-time SBIR awardees and 26% of the selected companies qualify as women-owned or small disadvantaged businesses. Investments were spread over 15 states.
The FY22 NOAA SBIR Phase I awardees include:
| Climate Adaptation and Mitigation | |
| AirMettle | Accelerated In-Situ Analysis of Multi-Dimensional Data |
| Project Vesta, PBC | Technological Development for Measuring, Reporting, and Verifying Olivine-mediated Ocean CO2 Sequestration |
| Weather-Ready Nation | |
| 60Hertz | Artificial Intelligence (AI) Based Algorithms for Predictive Maintenance Using NOAA Data-Sets for Renewable Energy Assets. |
| ACME AtronOmatic dba MyRadar | Orbital Wildfire Resilience |
| Dragoon Technology | Single Use Uncrewed Aircraft with Oceanic Range |
| Improving Aviation | Nowcasting Wildfire Ember Risk in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) with WindTL |
| Intellisense Systems | Flood Location and Alerting |
| Marine Advanced Robotics | Dynamic Swarming of USVs for Hydrographic Surveys in Disaster Recovery |
| Morphobotics | Autonomous Environmental UAV Survey System for Wildfire Assessments |
| Weathervane Labs | Novel Personal Thermal Comfort Models for Weather-Ready Decision-Making |
| Healthy Oceans | |
| Aerodyne Research | Novel Probes for Real Time Monitoring of Dissolved Gases and their Isotopologues in Aquatic Ecosystems |
| Ai.Fish | A Multimodal Computer Vision System for Fisheries Monitoring |
| Biospherical Instruments | Innovative UV Biofouling Mitigation Technique for In-water Optical Sensors |
| Blue Ocean Gear | Improving Data Measurements in Alaskan Waters While Reducing Ghost Gear Using Smart Fishing Technology |
| CoastalOceanVision | In Situ and Point of Sale Quantification of Human Pathogens Associated with Aquaculture and Shellfish Farming Using Novel Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy |
| Field Data Services | Automated Monitoring of Salmon Streams with a New Solid-State LiDAR |
| FPN dba PhytoSmart | Development and Evaluation of Peroxide Free Fin-Fish Nursery Feeds with Active DHA-Synthase Enzyme (DSe) |
| Goeppert | Rapid Detection of Nanoplastics with Advanced Solid-State Nanopore Sensors |
| LobsterLift | Developing and Testing Ropeless Fishing Gear with Inshore Lobstermen While Focusing on Speed, Cost, and Safety |
| Ocean’s Balance | Sustainable Seed Production for North Atlantic Kelp Aquaculture |
| Wolverine Radar Company | Measuring Stormwater Overflow with Synthetic Aperture Radar |
| Resilient Coastal Communities and Economies | |
| Adaptive Management and Engineering | Developing IOT Sensor Systems to Reduce Cost of Dredging for Coastal Restoration Initiatives |
| Geometric Data Analytics | Logistics Management of Drifters and Predictive Methods for Ocean Sensing |
Additional information about the proposed technologies, including project abstracts, is available here. NOAA selects Phase I awards to receive funding based on their scientific and technical merit, level of innovation, and commercial potential. Based on their progress in Phase I, companies will be eligible to submit proposals for up to $500,000 in Phase II funding to further develop the technologies toward commercialization. NOAA also recently announced this year’s Phase II grant recipients.
The NOAA SBIR Program is located within the NOAA Technology Partnerships Office. To learn about upcoming NOAA SBIR events, workshops, and funding opportunities, sign up for the NOAA SBIR email list and follow the NOAA Technology Partnerships Office on LinkedIn and Twitter @NOAAinnovate.