Games and Learning

The Department of Education sets aside a portion of its R&D money to support small business innovation.

Last year, game-based educational tech firms scored many of the key grants offered by the U.S. Department of Education’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts. The program is once again taking applications through March 24, 2014.

Companies seeking support for new products can consider different types of contracts offered in the competitive process.

Phase I

Phase I grants aim at to test the scientific or technical feasibility of an idea or technology. The grant period can run up to six months and carry a budget of up to $150,000.

The projects should focus on either technologies that are aimed for use by teachers and students or (and this one is a mouthful) “technology products for use by infants, toddlers, or students with or at risk for disabilities, or teachers (or other personnel, related services providers, or family members) in early intervention or authentic special education delivery settings (including general education classes with students with disabilities – however children with disabilities must be the focus of the work).”

There is more information about Phase I grants here.

Fast-track Proposals

For companies that feel like they have a strong case to proceed with both a Phase I research and development proposal and a Phase II full-scale development effort, the Department of Education offers a “Fast-track” proposal. These proposals include both an R&D plan and a second plan to development to market.

This second part of the proposal should, according to the grant website, ”

• (1) specify clear, measurable goals (milestones) that detail the R/R&D process through which the prototype will become a commercially viable technology product, (2) provide a research plan to test the usability, feasibility, fidelity of implementation, and promise of the product for achieving the intended outcomes when implemented in an authentic education setting or an authentic early intervention or special education setting, and (3) detail a commercialization plan for the dissemination and sustainability of the product when in the private marketplace.”

These grants can cover a 2 1/2-year period and be worth up to slightly more than $1 million.

More on the Fast-track program can be found here.

The SBIR program is aimed at helping for-proft companies bring educational technology products to market. The program aims to help companies with fewer than 500 employees and last year invested much of its funds in gaming firms who were developing products or bringing them to market.

When the 2013 awards were made, Mark DeLauro and Edward Metz wrote about how the grant awards reflected key trends around government support of game-based learning efforts.

This year’s prominent success of games-related proposals reflects three factors. First, the IES SBIR program has gained a reputation for recognizing and supporting—and so increasingly, attracting—bold innovators such as Filament Games (winner of the National STEM Video Game Challenge in 2011), Sokikom (winner of several industry awards and recent recipient of $1M in angel funding), and Triad Interactive Media (winner of a 2013 SIIA CODiE award). Second, educators are increasingly learning to use games to motivate students in new ways, creating increased demand for new ideas and products in this sector. Third, the recent meteoric rise in popularity of mobile devices has enabled game-playing anywhere and at any time, providing an expanded market of players interested in purchasing education titles.

Mark DeLoura and Edward Metz at WhiteHouse.gov