Small Business Administration (SBA) Annual Regional Cluster Survey

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is investing in regional clusters—geographically concentrated groups of interconnected businesses, suppliers, service providers, and related institutions in an industry or field—throughout the United States. The SBA’s Regional Innovation Cluster (RIC) Initiative promotes and supports these clusters. The SBA provides funding for organizations to act as networking hubs so they can gather resources to help navigate funding, procurement, and supply-chain opportunities in a specific industry. The Montana Bioscience Cluster Initiative (comprised of the following partners: Montana Bioscience Alliance, Montana World Trade Center, Montana Technology Enterprise Center, the University of Montana, Missoula Economic Partnership, and Swan Valley Medical) is the regional SBA RIC cluster for bioscience in Montana.

The SBA has hired a small business research organization, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal), to conduct an evaluation of the RIC Initiative to determine if it’s meeting its intended outcomes. The results are expected to inform suggestions for improvements to the RIC Initiative. To assist in this process, we request that you complete the forthcoming survey from Optimal. We suggest that you whitelist [email protected] and nbahel@optimalsolutionsgroup so that future communications are not sent to your spam folder.

Based on event sign-up lists or attendance sheets, the Montana Bioscience Cluster Initiative may have stated that you or someone from your organization attended or participated in cluster-organized trainings, events (including networking events), activities, and/or services. The purpose of this survey is to learn about your experiences with these events and/or services. Even if you are unsure, unaware, or don’t recall your attendance in these events or services, the SBA would still like you to respond to a few questions that may help the Montana Bioscience Cluster Initiative or organizations with similar functions tailor their message and outreach to organizations like yours.

The web-based survey is expected to take less than 20 minutes to complete. Your participation in this survey is completely voluntary. You do not have to answer any questions that you do not want to, and you can stop participating at any time.  Your time and cooperation are greatly appreciated.  Optimal will be conducting these surveys from August 22th to September 15th.

• If you have questions about the program, please contact Cassandra at [email protected]
• If you have questions about your participation in this survey or if you experience any technical difficulties accessing or submitting the survey, please contact Optimal Solutions at [email protected].