U.S. Department of Labor Seminar Phoenix March 18-20, 2014

Department of Labor has confirmed a three-day, Davis-Bacon Act and Service Contract Act prevailing wage seminar. These sessions provide very useful information to all subcontractors working on federal construction and/or service contracts. The seminars are provided at no cost, so please register early, if you are interested in attending. Email your name, title, organization, mailing address, email address, and date/location of the seminar that you wish to attend to whdpws@dol.gov We will confirm your registration if space is available. View flyer by clicking here for other times and locations.

Interested in Super Bowl Opportunities?

The Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee will host two important informational workshops:

Workshop 1: Thursday, February 27, 2014
Workshop 2: Thursday, April 3, 2014

Registration for the workshops is mandatory due to limited space. Businesses can register for the workshops online at http://azsuperbowl.com/businessconnect/.

NOTE: Only firms that have SBC status by March 15, 2014, may participate in Workshop 2, which requires pre-registration by March 27, 2014.

The AZ Fast Grant competition will open on Monday, March 10!

This competitive grant enables Arizona-based technology companies to initiate the commercialization process. Total funds available for this grant round are $175,000.

Maximum awards of $5,000 and $20,000 will enable companies to accomplish one of four scopes of work.

1. SBIR/STTR Proposal Development (Maximum award $5,000)
• Awardees will be automatically enrolled in our PIII Playbook training class with 23 hours of training and coaching. Cost per company to participate is $1,500. This will be paid from the AZ Fast Grant award. Services will be provided by consultants under contract with ACA.
• We are providing an additional $3,500 to the awardee for SBIR/STTR proposal writing assistance. The awardee may hire any professional consultant to assist them.

2. Commercialization Feasibility Study (Maximum award $5,000) The awardee may hire any professional consultant to assist them.
• Identify show stoppers to commercialization before resources are spent commercializing a technology that is unlikely to succeed.

3. Other Acceptable Means of Technology Commercialization Assistance (Maximum award $5,000) The awardee may hire any professional consultant to assist them.
• Technology Review – An expert review of the technology under development to determine if it already exists, is a good candidate for intellectual property protection and is likely to find an attractive market.
• Requests for other acceptable means of technology commercialization assistance will be considered.

4. Innovation in Manufacturing (Maximum award $20,000)
• This award provides seed monies for the creation and proof of concept testing of disruptive tools and technologies to Arizona manufacturing firms in targeted business sectors.
• Commercialization of these tools and technologies is our top goal.
• Solution providers, i.e. – consultants, training firms, engineering and technology companies, and educational institutions, are required to team with manufacturers to submit proposals.
• Each proposer must identify a teaming arrangement with Arizona manufacturers. Preference will be given to proposers teaming with multiple manufacturing partners.
• Applicants and their manufacturing partners must leverage the award funds with a partial match of the requested award amount.
• Applicants must demonstrate a 50% match (cash and in-kind) of the requested award amount. Preference will be given to applicants with higher cash to in-kind ratio.
• Manufacturing partners must provide a total award match of at least 25% cash and/or in-kind, i.e. – labor, materials, machine time, plant overhead, etc. Preference will be given to applicants with higher industry in-kind contributions.
• Match requirements for a theoretical award might look like:

Innovation in Manufacturing Award $20,000
Proposer Match (50%) $10,000
Sub Total $30,000
Total of Manufacturing Partners’ Match (25%) $7,500
Total Grant Value $37,500

Important Details
• Sample application is attached for reference
• Applications must be completed on-line via the link on the AZ Fast Grant webpage .
• Closes on April 14 @ 5pm MST.
• Awards will be announced in June.