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Committee hears bill to give TEDCO flexibility in SBIR matching grants
Summary
Delegate Julie Palakovich Carr and TEDCO sought language changes to Maryland’s SBIR/STTR matching grant to let TEDCO decide award counts and distribute funds across phases based on demand, without increasing total program funding.
Delegate Julie Palakovich Carr introduced House Bill 1450 on March 4 to modify how TEDCO administers the state matching grant for federal SBIR/STTR awardees. The change would remove prescriptive limits on the number of Phase 1 and Phase 2 matches TEDCO may award in a fiscal year and allow TEDCO to determine distribution between phases without increasing the total authorized program funding.
Mindy Laymon, Tedco’s chief government relations and policy officer, said the original statutory language limited TEDCO to awarding a fixed number of Phase 1 and Phase 2 grants (for example, 10 Phase 1 and 20 Phase 2 awards), which can be too rigid when demand shifts. The bill would instead give TEDCO the discretion to allocate awards to the phase mix that best supports commercialization, while maintaining the same overall program budget. Laymon said the change does not change the fiscal note — program funding remains subject to the annual budget process.
Supporters argued the flexibility would help Maryland retain SBIR/STTR winners and encourage commercialization of federally funded R&D. No members of the committee opposed the bill during the hearing; TEDCO requested a favorable report and offered to answer technical questions from members.
