Missouri's Business Climate Tool in Action: SBIR & STTR Data
The Business Climate Comparison (BCC) online tool recently launched by the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) contains a wide-range of data comparing state population, education, and economic information. The tool allows users to compare any number of states and the District of Columbia across 72 indicators that are sub-divided into eight easy-reference categories, including Population, Income, Education, Taxes, Cost of Living, Business Climate, Labor and Infrastructure.
In the sub-categories of data under Business Climate, Missouri ranks very favorably when compared to adjacent states. When ranked nationally or against states with similar population, Missouri ranked toward the middle for most categories of data.
- Adjacent states to Missouri are Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
- States with the most similar population compared to Missouri are Indiana, Tennessee, Arizona, Maryland, Wisconsin and Minnesota. These states' population range is from 5.1 million to 6.2 million. Missouri's population is 5.8 million.
Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology TRansfer
An example of available data with the MERIC BCC tool is the SBIR and STTR programs. These federally-funded programs encourage small businesses to explore their technological potential and provide the incentive to profit from its commercialization.
The major difference between the SBIR and the STTR is the STTR is a cooperative effort among small business interests and U.S. research institutions, while the SBIR is funding for small business concerns alone. Qualifications, funding agencies and other details about both programs can be found online at: http://www.sba.gov/sbir/indexsbir-sttr.html
- Compared to adjacent state allocations from SBIR and STTR in 2004, Missouri ranks third in money received for each program. The Show-Me state was allocated $10,867,734 for the SBIR, behind Illinois and Oklahoma. For the STTR, Missouri was allocated $2,242,068, behind Illinois and Tennessee.
- Missouri ranks second among adjacent states when combining the figures for both programs (see map below). Combined, the programs allocated Missouri with $13,109,802 for small business R&D, trailing only Illinois among adjacent states, which received $30,708,409.
SBIR/STTR combined allocations
2004 figures
- Nationally, Missouri ranks 27th in combined allocations from the SBIR and STTR. California and Massachusetts receive the most money for small business R&D, receiving $453,024,622 and $305,681,953, respectively.
- Compared to states with a similar population (Indiana, Tennessee, Arizona, Maryland, Wisconsin and Minnesota), Missouri ranks ahead of only Tennessee in combined allocations.
2004 figures
The BCC tool can be found on the MERIC website at: http://www.missourieconomy.org/indicators/bcc/index.stm
