One of the four Congressional objectives for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is to “foster and encourage participation by minority and disadvantaged persons in technological innovation.”[1] Surveys conducted by the National Academies of Science conducted in 2011 found that the percentage of participation by Hispanic-owned firms and Hispanic Principal Investigators in the SBIR program is small and vanishing.

We wanted to address this. Having lived and worked in Spanish-speaking countries, members of the Dawnbreaker team wanted to contribute to the engagement of the Hispanic community in the SBIR program. To that end we decided to develop a series of podcasts conducted in Spanish. We hope that this will be helpful in extending the reach of this outstanding program to include more entrepreneurs from advanced technology firms in the Latino community.

[1] P.L.97-219, § 2, July 22, 1982, 96 Stat. 217.