ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy welcomes members of the SBIR hearing at Lynn City Hall Tuesday that included Rep. Seth Moulton and Richard Hanna, who chaired the hearing.
By THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN — They’ve invented “millimeter wave calibration” and “microbioreactors.” But the businesses launched with the help of a small federal agency are 21st-century risk takers and innovators.
Swampscott resident Ann Eskesen has monitored the Small Business Innovation Research program for 35 years. She said it has spawned hundreds of success stories and launched thousands of engineering careers.
“SBIR funding allowed quite a few people to do things that are quite extraordinary,” Eskesen told U.S. reps Seth Moulton and Richard Hanna.
The congressmen convened a U.S. House Small Business Committee hearing Tuesday in the Lynn City Council Chamber, where Eskesen and three small business owners urged Moulton and Hanna to push Congress for renewed SBIR funding.
Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy opened the hearing and said SBIR allows small businesses to become technical innovators.
The $2 billion program works, according to a statement from Moulton’s office, to foster entrepreneurship and technological advancement for small businesses through a competitive process of providing awards to firms.
Eskesen said 23,000 have been awarded SBIR money to launch new inventions and products. But she warned Moulton and Hanna that the ability of newcomers to get into the program is dropping off precipitously.
Hanna said he is fairly confident Congress will reauthorize SBIR and continue the flow of federal tax dollars to the program. He said congressional support for the program reflects SBIR’s decades-long ability to spur inventors to turn dreams into realities.
“Small innovators have always been on the cutting edge of technology,” said the New York Republican. “They quit jobs, started businesses in garages — it’s a lot of late nights and even more sweat.”
SBIR innovations have helped make firefighters safer and improved eye care, said David Green, president of Andover-based Physical Sciences.
Moulton, a Marine Corps veteran, said other program innovations include a device enhancing blood flow for amputees.
“Not only do these discoveries aid government agencies, they help our communities,” he said.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].
