SBIR and the Phase III Challenge of Commercialization
Contributors
Editor: Charles W Wessner;1 National Research Council (US) Committee on Capitalizing on Science, Technology, and Innovation.Affiliations
Excerpt
As the SBIR program approached its twentieth year of operation, the U.S. Congress asked the National Research Council (NRC) to conduct a "comprehensive study of how the SBIR program has stimulated technological innovation and used small businesses to meet federal research and development needs" and make recommendations on improvements to the program. HR 5667 directs the NRC to evaluate the quality of SBIR research and evaluate the SBIR program’s value to the mission of the agencies that administer it. It calls for an assessment of the extent to which SBIR projects achieve some measure of commercialization, as well as an evaluation of the program’s overall economic and non-economic benefits. It also calls for additional analysis as required to support specific recommendations on areas such as measuring outcomes to enhance agency strategy and performance, increasing Federal procurement of technologies produced by small business, and overall improvements to the SBIR program.
This study was supported by Contract/Grant No. DASW01-02C-0039 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Defense, N01-OD-4-2139 (Task Order #99) between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, NASW-03003 between the National Academy of Sciences and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, DE-AC02-02ER12259 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Energy, and DMI-0221736 between the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.