Robert Brooke
Director, Federal Funding Programs​

Robert.Brooke@cit.org

Robert Brooke is responsible for the development and statewide outreach coordination of CIT’s Federal Funding Assistance Program in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  With CIT since 2002, Mr. Brooke has worked closely with small technology firms for more than 25 years. Through his efforts at CIT, Virginia continues to be consistently ranked in the top 3 states in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award dollars and total awards.

In recognition for his long time contributions to the SBIR community, he was awarded a 2016 Tibbett’s Award by the US Small Business Administration.   

Mr. Brooke has developed a comprehensive suite of training and mentoring programs designed to assist Virginia’s small technology firms at each stage of the SBIR process. He counsels companies who are new to the SBIR/STTR program to help guide them through the process, develop a plan of approach, and provide introductions to other expert third party resources. Managing a special assistance fund, companies he works with may receive small grants to help pay for the cost of expert SBIR consultants.

He has created special low-cost workshops and webinars to meet the growing needs of the firms he works with.  These events include introductory SBIR sessions, detailed proposal prep workshops, university researcher focused sessions, and advanced workshops for recent winners. 

He often provides a gateway to SBIR firms who are ready to graduate from SBIR funding and seek additional external funding sources.  He actively supports requests from prime contractors, federal agencies, and regional and national small business conferences to speak about SBIR and the types of support services available to the small business community across the country.

Mr. Brooke earned a B.S. in Marketing Management at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.