Oceanit hiring, cranking out federal tech grants - Business First of Columbus:

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The Honolulu science and engineering firm has 26 job and expects to hire about a dozen peoplewthis year, said marketing manager Ian Kitajima. It has 150 with engineers and researchers making up abou t 75 percent ofthe staff. “Fortunately, business is unfoldin as planned, but anything can happen, so we are bein g more aggressive this year by seekinhg out new markets and looking for incredible people to join the he said. Last week, the privatelu held company submitted a dozen federa grant proposals through the Small Business Innovation Research program.
Kitajima said Oceanit is on track to writw about 230 proposals this year for fundinvg throughthe program, exceeding last year’ss record of 201 proposals. The grante are unique because theyfund cutting-edge technologiea and innovative ideas for federal and there is no limit to the numbefr of SBIR grants a business can receive. Some example of projects Oceanit is pursuing includw developing asynthetic virus, a virus-like delivery syste m to quickly and easily get medication into the It’s also pitching ideas on new ways to cultivate algae, and improving wind-energgy technologies.
“If some of these proposals get we could easily hire up to three dozenm to handle thework load,” Kitajima said. The companyt also is benefiting indirectly from some ofthe $111 billioh in stimulus money dispersed to large science and tech companiea nationwide. For example, Kitajima said Oceanit is supporting stimulus-fundedf research projects through the NationalScience Foundation, the and the Department of On top of filling job openings, the compan also has created some new positionss to attract new talent. “It’s reallg tough and rare to find superstars in the field that wework in, so when we do, we have to creat a position,” Kitajima said.
The company recently hired Glen who was a senior engineer at in as a senior scientist to handle projects related to national Kitajima said to help cover salaries for such newly createdpositiones — “They’re not cheap” — Oceanirt looks at existing funded projects for them to work on at “That helps cover about 60 percent of their he said. “Then the remainingg 40 percent to 50 percent comes frombusinesxs development. We have them write proposals and go after business.
” Kitajima said in the past eight the company has created abour 10 positions for such “We’re trying to build an organization that will last way beyonf all of us,” he said. Oceanit also is lookingf for new laboratory space to handled itsincreased business. The company currentlt has in-house labs at its offices on Fort Stree t in downtown Honolulu and another onMerchanf Street. Patrick Sullivan founded the compant in 1985 after graduating from the with a doctorate inoceanh engineering. Sullivan’s wife, Jan, is Oceanit’s chief operatinyg officer.