The SEIC Board will approve the RFP opening the competition for the next round of 21st Century Jobs Fund awards at their meeting on Wednesday.  $30 million will be available to for-profit companies only.

SPARK will make a presentation to explain the award criteria and provide insight regarding what companies will be the likely winners on Thursday at noon at SPARK Central.  To register click here http://www.annarborusa.org/events/event-calendar/Index.cfm?i=2475.

We’ll be blogging all through the application period, which ends June 4.  So check back often.

Register for 21CJF Overview
Presentation on 21CJF RFP and How to Prepare

The SEIC board is meeting Monday February 25.  At that meeting they might approve the RFP for applicants to compete for the $30 million round of funding available this year.  Our friend David Haviland at Shepherd Advisors, who tries to attend all the SEIC meetings, was at the January meeting and reports on what he heard in his blog at

http://mi21cjf.proboards100.com/index.cgi?board=306news&action=display&thread=22.

A draft RFP has been reviewed by an SEIC committee and is expected to be presented at this meeting and approved.  It outlines who will be eligible to apply for investment. As is established in the legislation creating the 21st Century Jobs Fund it will be limited to companies in one of the four technology sectors of Advanced Automotive & Materials, Alternative Energy, Homeland Security, and Life Sciences.  The message coming from the MEDC and SEIC is that only for-profit companies that are early in their development but have revenue will be considered.  A match will be required but we’re short on details about what constitutes a match.  It’s probably safe to assume cash is best and at least a 1:1 ratio will be expected.

Another big difference this time will be the judging.  Emphasis will be more on commercialization and expectation for sales and employment growth versus technology. A business plan is going to be more important than a white paper.

So keep your eyes and ears open for news out of Lansing on Tuesday regarding the actions coming out of Monday’s SEIC meeting.  If you want to review the minutes of past SEIC meetings or see who the 19 members of the board are you can find it all at http://www.themedc.org/Boards-Committees/SEIC-Board/Default.aspx.

Shepherd Advisors blog on January SEIC meeting
David Haviland gives a good summary of what was discussed at the meeting.

SEIC Board
SEIC members, minutes and responsibilty