Catalyst Accelerator Opens Applications for Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Innovation Cohort
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (PRWEB) May 31, 2018 -- Aerospace and Defense incubator, accelerator, and research and development center, Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation, has announced it will be launching its second Catalyst Accelerator cohort, this one focused on Positioning, Navigation, and Timing technologies, beginning on September 18, 2018, and concluding on December 13, 2018. The Accelerator will be based at the Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation in downtown Colorado Springs. A semi-residential program, the Accelerator uses the Economic Gardening Curriculum provided by the Small Business Development Center in Boulder, Colorado.
Catalyst Accelerator is seeking teams across the United States of entrepreneurs, startups, and technologists from established companies with commercial solutions to provide PNT in a GPS-denied environment. Submitted solutions may augment, supplement, backup, complement, and improve upon current PNT capabilities provided by GPS. Submissions can range from single-user solutions to network-based or satellite-based solutions that serve multiple users. Technology users may be humans on foot, in buildings, in restricted terrain or caves; or, users may be aircraft, ships, satellites or automated networks ingesting PNT data. Solutions may also focus exclusively on delivering accurate timing without positioning information or conversely, positioning without accurate timing. They may also involve some combination of hardware devices, software, data products, algorithms, or services.
A directive from Congress specifically requested that this issue be researched and resolved due to concerns that the United States is over-reliant on vulnerable GPS technology. As General John Hyten recently said before the Armed Services Committee, “Maybe we were spoiled [because space was once considered a safe environment, but] we can’t assume that anymore. The military needs to look at precision navigation and timing as a mission and build resilience into that architecture as well as defending GPS on orbit.”
Interested participants should apply through the Air Force Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant AF Special Topic AF182-002 - Innovative Position Navigation and Timing. The SBIR is the vehicle through which initial basic funding of $50,000 is provided to participating companies. The Air Force SBIR/STTR Program office is piloting a new process via “AF Special Topics” to accelerate technologies to the warfighter. The AF Special Topics are different in several ways from the standard AF SBIR/STTR application, award, and execution. For example, the proposed Phase I application includes a Technical Volume that cannot exceed five pages, with an addendum to the Technical Volume of a pitch/slide deck of 15 slides or less.
Catalyst Accelerator’s 12-week, semi-residential program provides a host of exciting benefits to the successful applicants, including:
• A collaborative ecosystem and resources necessary to nurture the next level of innovation.
• Office space (a collaborative workspace that includes huddle rooms, Skype booths, conference rooms, whiteboard walls, and an open kitchen).
• Access to rapid government funding mechanisms such as Other Transaction Agreements (OTA), Rapid Innovation Funds and SBIR grants.
• Space Capital Colorado, a Catalyst-endowed accelerator fund, may further invest in any of the accelerator companies at the conclusion of the program.
• Close proximity to the AF customer, reducing the customer discovery process from an average of two years in the typical government market to less than three months.
• Access to rapid acquisition program managers.
• Direct access to mentors, operational experts and stakeholders from the Air Force and other government agencies, as well as the Catalyst Campus, C-TRAC, SBDC and PTAC national network of mentors, partners and investors.
Navigate to https://sbir.defensebusiness.org/topics?topicId=29426 for detailed information about the Catalyst Accelerator problem statement and topic.
ABOUT CATALYST ACCELERATOR
The Catalyst Accelerator is a defense and national security industry accelerator, headquartered on the Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The accelerator’s mission is to promote technology advancement for the warfighter and guide technology transfer from the government to the commercial market and vice versa. Catalyst Accelerator has partnered with the Center for Technology, Research and Commercialization (C-TRAC), Colorado Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) in the Boulder and Pikes Peak regions and Colorado Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) to provide a robust, mentor-driven curriculum for accelerator teams. To learn more, visit http://www.catalystaccelerator.space.
ABOUT CATALYST CAMPUS FOR TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION
Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation is a research and development campus focused on aerospace, space, and defense technology headquartered in downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. The vision of Catalyst Campus is to create an economic development “cluster” to expand the aerospace and defense industrial base in Southern Colorado through a neutral, collaborative infrastructure platform that supports entrepreneurs and small businesses. This unique, cluster environment stimulates economic growth and accelerates the development of new companies; promotes industry innovators, entrepreneurs, and start-ups; supports business training and workforce development; offers access to an applied research and development laboratory; and provides business development, support services and venture capital investment to accelerate innovation and the commercialization of technologies. To learn more, visit http://www.catalystcampus.com.
MEDIA CONTACT
Rebecca Decker, Media Relations, Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation
Email: [email protected] Phone: 719-896-5087
Lora Premo, C-TRAC, https://c-trac.org/, +1 7196596418, [email protected]
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