Specifications include, but are not limited to: The Regional Innovation Specialist Program (RISP) is designed to address this need by assisting Regional Councils in achieving their strategic goals focused on innovation and entrepreneurism. In addition, the RISP will assist New York State innovators and companies in every region of the state accelerate the process of shepherding ideas from concept to final product. This new program is the next generation of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Regional Specialist Program. RISP will provide funds to support entrepreneurship, technology acceleration and other activities to assist start-up and existing small and medium sized manufacturers with commercializing technology or incorporating technology into their systems. Each Regional Innovation Specialist will be hosted by a designated Regional Technology Development Center (RTDC). Each specialist under the RISP will provide assistance described in Section I.E.1. to clients located in their respective Innovation Regions defined in Section I.C.2 of this RFP. The Programs objectives are to: 1.) create jobs by assisting the growth of start-up companies and existing companies through innovative products or processes and 2.) assist Regional Councils with their entrepreneurial and innovation efforts.
