APRIL 15, 2020 — The UTSA Institute for Economic Development today launched the Small Business Development Center COVID-19 Business Recovery Accelerator (SBDC COBRA) to help small businesses weather the financial hardships caused by the coronavirus pandemic. COBRA is the only recovery accelerator of its kind in Texas to help stabilize and rebuild the small-business economy.
COBRA will provide small businesses with the counseling and resources to pursue loans from the financial industry and to begin recovering from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The accelerator will serve businesses in Bexar County and 10 surrounding counties. It will be funded by a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
“For nearly 40 years UTSA’s economic development programs have been creating jobs, growing businesses and strengthening the economy,” said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy. “UTSA is committed to leveraging its knowledge enterprise to support the community in this time of need. I can think of no better way to do that than to pave the way for small businesses to get emergency financial relief.”
COBRA will act as a single “front door” to help small businesses access relief, recovery, rebooting and resilience resources. To provide businesses with relief, the accelerator will help them navigate federal funding opportunities, such as the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program and its Economic Injury Disaster Loan Emergency Advance. It will also assess the applications of businesses that have been denied emergency funding and help them reapply.
To reboot businesses and help them recover from the damage of the pandemic, the accelerator will provide confidential, no-cost consulting in finance, human resources, operations, marketing, and business and strategic planning with the goal of winning back and finding new customers.
“Thank you to the UTSA leadership for launching COBRA in an effort to get help to where it is needed,” said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. “I know that our community will come out of this stronger than ever.”
To make South Texas’ economy more resilient, COBRA will also help small businesses scale up their operations and become more competitive through importing and exporting, contracting, market research, technology commercialization and emergency preparedness.
“Small businesses are the foundation of San Antonio’s economy. UTSA’s accelerator to help small-business owners get back in the game will be a vital step on our road to recovery,” said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg.
UTSA will work with the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, San Antonio District SBA Office, minority business organizations and chambers of commerce to provide support to affected businesses.
“At the start of the crisis SAEDF mobilized the business community to uncover the greatest needs and the barriers to those needs. COBRA is the kind of solution employers asked for, and UTSA answered the call,” said Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, SAEDF chief executive officer.
On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the largest economic relief package in American history.
From the funding provided to the SBA through the CARES Act, the South-West Texas Border SBDC Network, a 79-county network that includes the San Antonio SBDC and spans the Gulf Coast and Central, West and South Texas, will receive an expected total of $4.3 million. In addition to the $1.2 million allocated to COBRA, the SBDC Network will distribute $3.1 million to its nine field centers outside of San Antonio so they can add staff aligned with COBRA’s efforts.
“In the absence of a vaccine or proven treatment for COVID-19 along with the uncertainty of the length of public health measures, such as shelter-in-place, the San Antonio area business and economic environment will continue to face significant hardship,” said Rod McSherry, UTSA associate vice president for innovation and economic development. “Now is the time to support small businesses and not only see them through to recovery but also increase their resilience for the long term.”
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
Covidence is a systematic & scoping review tool used to streamline the process of screening and reviewing articles. Using this software, research teams can easily import studies, perform automatic deduplication, and extract data using templates. This workshop will show attendees how to start a review in Covidence, add collaborators, and get started on screening.
Virtual (Zoom)In this workshop, attendees will be introduced to Pandas, a Python tool for working with data easily. It makes it simple to organize and analyze information when data is organized and categorized, like spreadsheets or tables.
Group Spot B, John Peace LibraryEach fall and spring semester, students convene at the Main Campus at UTSA with booths, ideas and prototypes. A crowd of judges, local organizations, students, faculty and sponsors walk around and talk to the students about their projects and ask questions. Students get the real-life experience of "pitching" their project with hopes of getting funding or support to move to the next level.
UTSA Convocation Center, Main CampusJoin the doctoral candidates for the Doctoral Conferreal Ceremony and celebrate their accomplishments.
Arts Building Recital Hall, Main CampusCelebrate the graduates from the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, College of Education and Human Development, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design and University College.
AlamodomeCelebrate the graduates from the College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and College of Sciences.
AlamodomeThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
