SBIR and the Phase III Challenge of Commercialization Report of a Symposium (2007) / Chapter Skim
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Panel I: The SBIR Program: Different Needs, Common Challenges
Panel I: The SBIR Program: Different Needs, Common Challenges
Pages 52-74
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From page 52... ...
This challenge is not unique to SBIR, and he suggested that SBIR procedures could provide insights into other kinds of R&D programs seeking to bridge the so-called "Valley of Death" between technological research and commercialization.21 He said that the Senate Committee on Armed Services fully supported the SBIR program, and looked forward to seeing more companies move into the defense marketplace to become either stand-alone prime contractors or subcontractors to existing prime contractors. 21"Commercialization" was acknowledged by several participants to include the transition of new technologies either into applications within the DoD and/or into the public marketplace.
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From page 53... ...
He joined many participants in noting the diversity of SBIR programs, implemented by different agencies in different ways in order to meet agency-specific missions. Leveraging Small Business Innovation to Benefit the Warfighter The general objective of the SBIR program in the DoD, he said, was to harness and leverage small business innovation for the benefit of the warfighter and the nation.
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From page 54... ...
In all, Mr. Caccuitto said he had counted 155 separate functional activities involved in the DoD SBIR program, making it a "highly decentralized and geographically dispersed program." Imperfect Quantitative Metrics To date, the department had used "success stories," examples of what the program had contributed to the efforts of warfighters, as a qualitative measurement of success.
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From page 55... ...
Army Navy AF DARPA MDA OSD DTRA SOCOM CBD NGA FY05 SBIR Budget $233M $253M $315M $67.5M $126M $61M $4.7M $13M $5.8M $700K STTR Program $28M $30.4M $37.8M $8.1M $15.1M $6M -- - -- - -- - -- Topic Generation D D D C C C C D D C Proposals to Topics 12.6 13.8 13.1 20.1 13.0 13.5 18.6 15.1 13.6 61.0 Gap Funding Y Y Y Y Y N N Y Y N Procurement Activity Y Y Y N Y N N Y N N # of Activities 32 26 20 9 32 7 6 10 12 1 % of Phase II Enhance 18% 5% 12% 35% 3% 2% 0% 20% 3% -- FY05 Budget Legend: SOCOM • Topic Generation: D = decentralized process; C = centralized process CBD DTRA • Gap Funding: Y = procedures in place to reduce the funding gap between MDA NGA OSD phase I completion and phase II award; N = no gap funding DARPA Army • Procurement Activity: Y = acquisition program or other procurement activity within Agency; N=no • # of Activities: number of labs, centers, commands, and/or divisions within Agency that participate in SBIR • % of Phase II Enhancement: Percent of your Phase II awards that receive Phase II enhancement funding Navy AF SBIR in DoD is highly diverse in implementation and decentralized management. FIGURE 9 Participating DoD components.
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From page 56... ...
This is a rather elaborate record of individual contract actions that is required for all direct contracts with the government. A field in this form is dedicated to SBIR, and it is possible to indicate Phase I, Phase II, or Phase III, though it is questionable, he said, based on input from veteran contracting officials within the Department, whether contracting officers in the field pay attention to this discriminator or are necessarily aware when a contract action qualifies as an SBIR/STTR Phase III award.
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From page 57... ...
SOURCE: Department of Defense CCR, 2005. NOTE: Sixty three percent of projects are DoD Phase II awards, and 37 percent are other Federal Phase II awards, indicating a high degree of capture of non-DoD Phase II commercialization data.
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From page 58... ...
. This means that the SBIR program tends to only develop a technology to a readiness level of about four or perhaps five, whereas a program office may not be willing to consider it until level seven or eight.
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From page 59... ...
Its purpose was to characterize and benchmark best practices relative to technology transition in the SBIR program, with an eye to improving the program and informing policy development.
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From page 60... ...
Holland, with the most "basic" research funded in 6.1, and the most "developmental" work in 6.3. These accounts paid for 16 percent of SBIR program money, with the other 84 percent coming out of accounts that fund testing and acquisitions (6.4 and 6.5)
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From page 61... ...
Attendees included not only PEOs (Program Executive Offices) and program offices, but also prime contractors and outside investors looking for commercializable results.
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From page 62... ...
About five years ago, the Navy had started a "Primes Initiative," an active outreach effort to connect program executive officers with prime contractors in a more formal way. They had found that the prime contractors see great value in partnering with SBIR companies, partly because the prime contractors want to leverage the work of small firms, influence SBIR topics, and join the SBIR in other small and disadvantaged business programs.
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From page 63... ...
He said that this rule had hampered the effort of the Air Force SBIR program. Their entire program was being administered by only four people at WrightPatterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio, who supported nine technology directorates, the product centers, the test centers, and the logistics centers that buy the technology as it matures to the point of program insertion.
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From page 64... ...
Some stories were relayed to them by participants -- in some cases by contracting officers who checked a box on the DD 350 form -- but to date these stories had been "captured mostly by coincidence." One recent success story had been a project on which the Air Force worked quickly with the Army and the Navy to produce a new kind of body armor and move it quickly to the field to support the warfighter. He said that the Air Force needed and wanted to improve its SBIR program, and asked for help from the participants.
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From page 65... ...
He mentioned examples where SBIR projects have actually gone to support a need at a military depot. The projects might be paired off with prime contractors, or they might be commercialized directly, preferably offering some benefit to the military.
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From page 66... ...
The department must try to strike a balance between these conflicting strategies, which it attempts to implement through the pilot program with the Program Executive Offices and through maintaining an emphasis on long-term innovation in DoD laboratories. In summary, he said that the Army was providing multiple paths to increase the chances that innovations produced by small businesses will be able to move into military systems in support of U.S.
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From page 67... ...
NASA begins by aligning the SBIR program with the needs of its own mission directorates. The topics and subtopics that flow from the directorates to the SBIR program start with a basis of traditional NASA strategic planning and annual mission planning.
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From page 68... ...
68 Technology Based Product U Advanced Technology t Product/Process Development i Technology Transfer Commercialization l Emerging Advanced Product Development Technology New Technology Base Development i Demonstration Test & Evaluation t Development Engineering Limits of Performance Phenomena & y Applied Discoveries Research Application Concepts Focused Experiments Technical Studies Applied Research Results Basic Research Technological Maturity Origin of Discoveries Knowledge - unknown but existing Innovation - creation of what does not exist FIGURE 14 Paths for new technology products.
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From page 69... ...
Because NASA does not build fleets of Space Shuttles, say, or other complex products, it cannot sustain a small business with such bulk purchases. So NASA must use other measures for partnering with organizations that assist small businesses, such as the SBIR/STTR 2005 National Conferences that link SBIR firms to business opportunities and the investment community.
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From page 70... ...
In addition to traditional commercialization, NASA tries to find other opportunities to leverage their companies' products by helping form partnerships with the mission directorates. The agency calls this process infusion, or "spin-in": using the internal mechanisms of the mission programs to help move technology into the mission directorates.
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From page 71... ...
There seemed to be no specific mechanism within or related to the SBIR program to help with this transition. Few Small Businesses Cross Phase III He said he was forced to conclude that even though Phase I and Phase II of the SBIR program are generally successful, and some firms have been able to cross the Phase III barrier, the vast majority of SBIR programs have not.
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From page 72... ...
teach program offices to view the SBIR program as an integral part of their research and development effort, not something "extra." Incentives for Program Managers Mr. Greenwalt asked what type of incentives might be used for program executive officers and program managers.
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From page 73... ...
He said that John Williams of the Navy had played a large role in changing that attitude over the past six years or so by delivering the following message to the Navy's program offices: "The SBIR program provides money and opportunity to fill R&D gaps in your program. Apply that money and innovation to your most urgent needs." He said that this approach had placed the SBIR program in a different light for many people.
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From page 74... ...
This might reduce the number of SBIR awards, but it would make each project more viable and give more value to the program officers, who could then expect a higher level of technology readiness for their program. They could even use some of those dollars -- their dollars -- to hire people to help manage the SBIR projects and to advocate for the SBIR program within the program office.
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