Research firms and small businesses to compete for funding in first virtual TeamUp event

The new­ly expand­ed AFWERX team will host their first vir­tu­al TeamUp event with the Air Force Research Lab­o­ra­to­ry (AFRL) next week, which includes the next round of Air Force Small Busi­ness Tech­nol­o­gy Trans­fer (STTR) Open Top­ic fund­ing.

The event, from 15th-16th July, will pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty for firms to col­lab­o­rate with lead­ing research insti­tu­tions and uni­ver­si­ties, and the solic­i­ta­tion includes an Agili­ty Prime focus area — with an esti­mat­ed $10 mil­lion of con­tracts to be award­ed with­in 90 days.

Col. Nathan Diller, AFWERX Direc­tor, said: “TeamUp events like this one will pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for mul­ti­ple stake­hold­ers to come togeth­er and com­pete with speed. Just like AFWERX and AFRL are team­ing up to bring cut­ting edge com­mer­cial tech­nol­o­gy togeth­er with world-class research, we are encour­ag­ing entre­pre­neurs and researchers from around the coun­try to TeamUp in a way that strength­ens our nation­al secu­ri­ty and pros­per­i­ty.”

Day one of the event will be open to the pub­lic with Air Force senior leader keynotes, an overview of the team­ing between AFWERX and AFRL, fund­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties with the Air Force STTR Open Top­ic solic­i­ta­tion and a pub­lic trade show.

On day two, the vir­tu­al trade show will allow for focused dis­cus­sions between Agili­ty Prime ecosys­tem mem­bers who have cho­sen to reg­is­ter for a vir­tu­al booth. AFWERX will facil­i­tate con­nec­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion to these mem­bers, who will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to team for the STTR Open Top­ic appli­ca­tions.

The trade show on day one will fea­ture advanced air mobil­i­ty tech­nolo­gies, such as like elec­tric propul­sion sys­tems, advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing, high-speed secure com­mu­ni­ca­tions, as well as auton­o­my and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and the asso­ci­at­ed sen­sor and com­put­ing hard­ware.

As part of the event, Air Force lead­ers will also high­light how this expand­ed AFWERX and AFRL team will ener­gise col­lab­o­ra­tion between gov­ern­ment, indus­try, investors, and acad­e­mia. This includes lever­ag­ing suc­cess­ful Air­men inno­va­tion efforts, Air Force ven­tures ini­tia­tives, and rapid capa­bil­i­ty tran­si­tions like Agili­ty Prime, all cou­pled with the deep tech­ni­cal base at AFRL.

The STTR Open Top­ic Agili­ty Prime focus area explores poten­tial com­mer­cial prod­ucts being devel­oped for med­ical evac­u­a­tion, fire­fight­ing, dis­as­ter response, search and res­cue, and human­i­tar­i­an relief oper­a­tions.

Maj. Jared Evans, AFWERX STTR Open Top­ic pro­gramme man­ag­er and tech­nol­o­gy trans­fer lead at the Air Force Office of Sci­en­tif­ic Research, added: “The STTR Open Top­ic is yet anoth­er way the Air Force is deter­mined to be the pre­ferred part­ner for small busi­ness, pro­vid­ing non-dilu­tive seed fund­ing to them and their research part­ners, includ­ing uni­ver­si­ties and non-prof­it insti­tu­tions.

“The STTR pro­gram is a crit­i­cal part of our broad­er invest­ment in our small busi­ness and research com­mu­ni­ties.”

For more infor­ma­tion, and to reg­is­ter for the event, vis­it http://agilityprime.com/#/sttr