Where research meets funding

Gem Group works at the point where research meets funding. Our clients are universities, research institutes, early-stage companies and project developers whose work depends on capital they do not yet have — and whose route to it usually runs through a federal agency, a private investor, or both in sequence.

The practice covers four related things: federal grant strategy, government relations, private equity advisory and venture capital advisory. They sit together because for research-driven organisations they are one problem. A biotech company deciding whether to pursue an SBIR award or raise a seed round is making a single decision about sequencing, not two unrelated ones, and the answer changes what terms are available a year later.

The firm is led by Glenn Giolito and operates from three offices: Washington, DC, where the federal work happens; San Diego, in the life sciences cluster; and Scottsdale, covering the Southwest and the sustainability practice.

How we work is deliberately unremarkable. Engagements are fee-based and scoped in writing. We do not take a percentage of federal awards — that arrangement conflicts with the cost principles governing those awards and creates an audit problem for the client. We do not promise outcomes in competitions decided by peer review or by Congress. Where a project is not fundable, or not fundable yet, we would rather say so early than be paid to find out slowly.