The US Government provides Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from several different departments, (i.e. Defense, Ag, NASA, NSF, Transportation, Energy, etc.) They are supposed to go to 'small' companies, (less than 400-personnel), and provide funding for ideas that would not ordinarily get money.
I presented my patented design for a rotary engine to several of them, only to be shot down almost instantly. The real kicker was talking to a guy from NSF who told me, "Well, you know everything is going electric." Of course, this might be true of aircraft once batteries make a 20-fold improvement in energy density! When you fill gate-keeper positions with no-nothing, needle dicks such as him, the SBIR program will, at best, only support lame, conventional ideas.
The US Government provides Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from several different departments, (i.e. Defense, Ag, NASA, NSF, Transportation, Energy, etc.) They are supposed to go to 'small' companies, (less than 400-personnel), and provide funding for ideas that would not ordinarily get money.
I presented my patented design for a rotary engine to several of them, only to be shot down almost instantly. The real kicker was talking to a guy from NSF who told me, "Well, you know everything is going electric." Of course, this might be true of aircraft once batteries make a 20-fold improvement in energy density! When you fill gate-keeper positions with no-nothing, needle dicks such as him, the SBIR program will, at best, only support lame, conventional ideas.