Washington, DC - The MSI STEM Research & Development Consortium (MSRDC) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently signed a Strategic Alliance Memorandum (SAM). The agreement allows the non-profit organization and the federal government agency to collaborate and leverage resources to increase engagement with Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) and Small Business Concerns (SBC) across the nation. Aligned under the common mission of engaging diverse talent to promote innovation, research, and commercialization, the partnership’s purpose is to strengthen and expand small business development pipelines from underrepresented pools of science and engineering talent.  

The mission of the SBA is to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business by providing financial, contractual and business development assistance and advocating on their behalf within the government. The mission of MSRDC is to facilitate research funding opportunities for our members.  The facilitation for our members start with an understanding of what best practices have led to successful awards and determination of what barriers have prevented success.