LSWI Grant Writing Workshop: Demystifying SBIR/STTR Funding

As the Executive Director to Life Science Washington Institute Rich works on connecting entrepreneurial support resources across the state and leads the development and delivery of new Institute programs and services. Additionally, he is Chairman of the Board for the Bioscience Association of West Virginia, and was the founding CEO of Valtari Bio.

Prior to joining LSWI Rich held Director level positions at two venture capital firms, was the chief operating officer of a biotech company in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and the Chief Science Officer for the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials at Rutgers University.  He has helped companies secure over $100 million in federal funding, tax, and relocation incentives and written over $15M in successful SBIR/STTR applications.

Dr. Greg Evans is a molecular biologist and biochemist by training with 23 years experience as an NIH Program Director managing translational (bench-to-bedside) research projects. Greg has broad experience managing projects that span the spectrum from in vitro studies to pre-clinical animal studies and to clinical trials. Greg is currently a Supervisory Health Scientist Administrator, Team Leader, and Program Director within the NCI SBIR Development Center (SBIR DC), an office created in 2007 to centralize management of the NCI’s SBIR and STTR programs. These two programs had an annual combined budget of $182 Million in fiscal year 2021 which ended in September. The SBIR DC markets NCI small business funding programs (SBIR grants and contracts, and STTR grants) to the oncology-focused small business and biotechnology investment communities, and also mentors small businesses in the commercialization of cancer-related products. As a Team Leader, Greg leads a small group of 4 Program Directors active in the areas of cancer imaging, cancer therapeutics, basic cancer research tools, and behavioral medicine. As a Program Director, he is responsible for a broad portfolio that includes imaging devices, cancer diagnostics, and cancer therapeutics. Prior to his current position, Greg held three other positions at NIH. He was a Program Director in the Blood Division of NHLBI for 10 years, a Senior Staff Fellow in NHGRI for 3 years, and an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow in NCI for 4 years beginning in 1991. Greg trained at UC Berkeley, UCSF, and UCLA, and is a native of Northern California.