A one-of-a-kind program that will play a cutting-edge role in developing the technology and practices of tomorrow, and I am proud that the nexus of these activities will be right here in the Dayton area.

We have so much talent in our region, and it is exciting that Parallax Advanced Research has been chosen as a partner for this new USAF initiative. 

Importantly, the APEX project focuses specifically on growing the Air Force's technological defense capabilities in partnership with academia. This is the first of its kind in the country that is working across the country to connect small businesses and academia.

APEX develops and utilizes analytics to identify academic and business partners and map technology areas of interest to the USAF. These efforts are key to connecting an underserved community of Universities and Small Business partners with Air Force resources.

The APEX team has been phenomenal in helping us navigate the STTR  process, from learning how to write a proposal to helping us find potential partners and now, teaching us how to engage with the Air Force during the post-award phase.

I think the subject of my email was “Urgent! Help Needed” and APEX successfully delivered that help. There are so many unknowns in that last phase of the process… that expert guidance at critical hours… the quality and success of our proposal may not have been there if I had ventured on my own. It was APEX that helped necoTech see how our innovation fits in the military and DoD industry.

We're really good at what we do, but we were very bad at navigating this process, so, APEX walked us through it. Without APEX ’s help, we wouldn’t be where we are today – with a $150,000 award to apply our technology in the defense market.

APEX helped us from beginning to end. One of the things I tell people here at the University is that if you do want to pursue one of these opportunities, you need to go through a group like APEX; it’s essentially someone guiding you and telling you the next step the whole way. The entire presence of APEX through our STTR contract solicitation process was very mentor like and exactly what we needed at that stage of our business.

Having an APEX mentor to touch base with on a regular basis helps first time and experienced small businesses navigate the Air Force requirements for SBIRs and STTRs. I highly recommend joining this program.