HSARPA awards small biz grants

A total of 66 firms will get grants from the Homeland Security Department under a research program intended to bring new technologies into the department.

Under the Small Business Innovation Research program, the department's Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) will award six-month contracts of $100,000 or less to the firms to define the scientific, technical and commercial merit of their ideas. The 66 companies will get a total of $6.5 million, according to agency officials.

Firms that succeed at that will be invited to apply for Phase II awards of up to $750,000, to develop the idea into a prototype.

The program is limited to small businesses.