Becky Aistrup brings more than the “technical knowledge” of the SBIR/STTR Program to the table when she meets with individuals and companies interested in pursuing this competitive funding source. Her background in business, combined with her scientific knowledge, affords the person across the table the benefit of strategically discussing venturing into the detailed work of submitting proposals, building relationships and setting up the timeline for planned development and commercialization of their technology. She can truly say she has “walked in their shoes,” since she understands the business aspects of commercializing technology.

She started her SBIR career in 1983 while working at Surmodics, Inc. She was responsible for preparing commercialization plans and helped the company to win nearly $10 million from five agencies. Supporting the commercialization track of the company she executed worldwide technology licenses and partnerships which included the company’s first multi-million dollar license agreement with Abbott Labs. Becky was instrumental in the preparation of their highly successful IPO (initial public offering) in 1997.

Becky streamlined and enhanced a Phase II Commercialization Assistance Program in Minnesota. The program contracts with expert service providers to work with a company on preparing their Phase II commercialization plan. One month from announcement funds were assigned to specific service providers with small businesses submitting Phase II proposals, a very popular program.

The Mayo Clinic is seeking to put forth additional effort to commercialize technology and Becky is partnering with them to address conflicts of interest and help them best prepare their researchers to participate in the SBIR/STTR program. She worked actively with the Office of Technology Commercialization to streamline their conflict of interest policy to allow more researchers the opportunity to apply for federal SBIR/STTR grants.

Becky has raised the level of awareness at the legislative level about the benefits of Minnesota increasing their Phase I and II awards and especially its small businesses commercializing their technology. She created a database that can be searched by legislative district and includes companies, amount of awards and funding agencies. Many legislators do not know many of the details of the companies in their district and now she can access that information for them. Legislators have requested information and are surprised at the amount of federal funding awarded to their districts.
In a little over two years Becky created a weekly email update announcement service that is now sent to over 800 individuals, both statewide and nationally. First and foremost in her weekly updates is anything SBIR/STTR-related. She also includes other funding opportunities, items of a business interest and promotion of events for other organizations. Because of her statewide reach to high-tech businesses many local organizations request to have their events added to her updates.

Becky served as an expert reviewer to the USDA in reviewing Phase II Proposals, especially commercialization plans and also for the Kentucky SBIR/STTR Matching Funds program.