Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) announced the launch of a 5-city tour to increase awareness among minority business enterprises of opportunities to improve businesses and create jobs using technology invented in Federal government laboratories. The MBDA InVision Tour begins in Atlanta, December 6 - 7, 2018, and includes stops in Houston, San Francisco, New York City, and Miami.
"The Minority Business Development Agency is proud to partner with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to support minority business development through technology transfer," said MBDA National Director Henry Childs, II. "MBDA will support American innovation and global competitiveness by helping to increase diversity and inclusion in the technology industry."
Two-thirds of the most influential technologies of the past 50 years—smartphones, autonomous vehicles, personalized medicine, and GPS—were made possible through private sector use of Federally-funded research and development in national laboratories and universities.
The MBDA InVision Tour, a collaborative effort between MBDA and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, will encourage minority business enterprises to explore the benefits of utilizing Federal technology transfer opportunities. Specifically, the MBDA InVision Tour will present opportunities for cooperative research and development agreements with university and Federal researchers, as well as provide information on the funding, facilities, patents, and equipment that Federal laboratories have to offer.
About the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)
MBDA, www.mbda.gov, is the only Federal agency dedicated to the growth and global competitiveness of U.S. minority-owned businesses through the mobilization and advancement of public and private sector programs, policy, and research. Our services provide greater access to capital, contracts, and markets and better equip minority-owned firms to create jobs, build scale and capacity, increase revenues and expand regionally, nationally and internationally.
