AFWERX Selects Holos for $75k Phase I SBIR Contract
May 24th, 2023 – HOLOS, INC. announces it has been selected by AFWERX for an SBIR Phase I in the amount of 75 Thousand USD focused on using VR to rapidly upskill Air Force Personnel in austere environments to investigate its potential to fill capability gaps in the Department of the Air Force (DAF).
The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through a faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and losing bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution.
The DAF began offering 'The Open Topic' SBIR/STTR program in 2018 which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded and now on May 24th, 2023, Holos will start its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America.
With this funding in hand, Holos will be able to conduct feasibility-related experimental or theoretical R/R&D to validate the product-market fit between the proposed solution and a potential DAF stakeholder.
“The Air Force needs adaptable training content that can be both rapidly modified to address the specific emerging need and also delivered modularly for just-in-time (JIT) training. However, current training modules are often bespoke and are unable to be segmented and used separately as needed,” said Daniel Borkhus, Co-Founder and CEO of Holos. "Holos enables rapid and on-demand retrieval of specific training content in austere locations. We aim to reduce training preparation and execution times by at least 50% in deployed environments by increasing the availability of adaptable training content. We couldn't be more excited to receive this funding, and we are beyond excited to deliver this mission-critical training platform to Airmen across Air Force Research Lab and the 711th Human Performance Wing."
Paired with Holos' existing award under Air Education Training Command's BOA for Live, Virtual, and Constructive Training, Holos is open for business to stakeholders across the U.S. Air Force to utilize Holos' platform as well as to develop further capabilities.
About Holos
Holos, a Madison (WI) based company Co-founded by Daniel Borkhus and Tyler Waite. Holos delivers a no-code VR platform for creating and deploying immersive education and training content. Through an end-to-end suite of no-code tools, Holos enables anyone, regardless of technical background, to produce educational content in VR. Additionally, the entire Holos platform is powered through intuitive hand-based interactions, delivering a much more natural experience. For more information, visit: www.holos.io/government.
About AFRL
Sole organization leading the planning & execution of USAF & USSF science & technology programs. Orchestrates a world-wide government, industry & academia coalition in the discovery, development & delivery of a wide range of revolutionary technology. Provides leading-edge warfighting capabilities keeping air, space and cyberspace forces the world's best. Employs 10,800 military, civilian, and contractor personnel at 17 research sites executing an annual $4B budget. For more information, visit: www.afresearchlab.com.
About AFWERX
AFWERX is an Air Force Research Laboratory Directorate that connects innovators across government, industry and academia. Through innovation and collaboration with our nation’s top subject-matter experts, AFWERX harnesses the power of ingenuity of internal talent while expanding technology, talent and transition partnerships for rapid and affordable commercial and military capability. Additional information is available at: www.afwerx.com/.
About AFVentures
AFVentures invests in emerging technologies to scale Department of the Air Force capabilities, strengthening the US industrial base that empowers Airmen and Guardians by incentivizing private, for-profit investment in national security interests. Our success is achieved by connecting novel commercial solutions with defense problem sets, de-risking Airmen and Guardian initiatives to fill capability gaps and transition technologies. Learn more at https://afwerx.com/afventures-overview/.
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