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SBIR/STTR and Support for Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Scientists and Engineers
The third panel introduced some agency perspectives on initiatives to broaden Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program participation among underrepresented groups and included a presentation by a successful entrepreneur. The two lead speakers, Grace Wang of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Karina Edmonds of the Department of Energy (DoE), focused on developing the pipeline of upcoming scientists and engineers. Dr. Wang emphasized the importance of enhancing the talent pool and retaining talent and described NSF’s efforts, through the SBIR program, to encourage SBIR awardees to subcontract to Minority-Serving Institutions and community colleges and to hire high school and college students, postdocs, and K-12 and community college teachers. Ms. Edmonds argued for better outreach to graduate students, stronger support for application completion, and streamlining the award process—citing that she was unaware of the program while a PhD student at the California Institute of Technology. Eric Adolphe of CenterScope Technologies described the challenges he faced as a minority while pursuing an engineering degree and his perseverance in completing that degree, receiving an SBIR award, and building a successful company. Echoing the message of Ms. Edmonds, he cited the application process as a barrier to entry for all, and he expressed the need for mentors and role models, adding that successful SBIR awardees can offer assistance in completing applications. Jagannathan Sankar of North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT), the first Historically Black University to be selected by the NSF to be an Engineering Research Center (ERC), reviewed the university’s efforts to cultivate entrepreneurship among its faculty and students. The panel was moderated by Tim McClees of the House
Committee on Armed Services, who argued that agency review panels should include more minorities and women from smaller institutions.
The content of the discussion and issues and recommendations raised by speakers is summarized below.
Grace Wang
National Science Foundation
Grace Wang, director of the NSF’s Industrial Innovation and Partnerships Division at the time of the workshop, opened the panel by highlighting her division’s mission to drive U.S. innovation by investing in technology and its commercialization, an objective that cannot be accomplished without human talent. “The base of innovation capacity is people—that’s the innovators and entrepreneurs,” said Dr. Wang. That recognition drives the NSF’s interest in broadening participation in science and engineering through the SBIR program. To channel more people into STEM careers, “first, we need to expand the talent pool, and second, retain the talent,” said Ms. Wang. “We need to increase the pipeline and stop leakage of the pipeline,” she said.
Dr. Wang shared a statistic based on Census Bureau data: In 2008, 65 percent of the total U.S. population belonged to groups that are underrepresented in science and engineering, that is, women, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and people with disabilities. Yet, only 33 percent of people from these groups were employed in science and engineering occupations in 2006, according to NSF data.
To broaden participation, Dr. Wang noted that the NSF runs several initiatives to encourage SBIR Phase II awardees to hire high school and college students, postdocs, and K-12 and community college teachers including:
- Research Assistantships for High School Students, where Phase II awardees hire high school students for up to $6,000 per student.
- Research Experience for Teachers, where Phase II awardees hire K-12 teachers for up to $10,000 per teacher to return the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship to the classroom.
- Community College Research Teams, where Phase II awardees receive up to $40,000 and subcontract at least 75 percent of this award to a community college, working with at least one faculty member and one student as a team.
- Research Experience for Undergraduates, the most popular program among Phase II awardees, where companies hire college interns for up to $8,000 per student. About 40 percent of Phase II awardees have hired at least one such student.
- The Phase IIA program, which gives Phase II awardees $100,000 with the requirement to subcontract 70 percent of the award to Minority-Serving Institutions to conduct research together.
- The Small Business Post-Doc Research Diversity Fellowship, which enables postdocs to work for Phase II companies for up to $75,000 each.
- The Veteran’s Research Supplement, which enables Phase II companies to hire veteran high school and college students, teachers, and community college faculty for up to $10,000 per veteran.
In addition, the NSF attempts to support existing principal investigators by providing them with specific networking and mentoring opportunities at the annual awardees’ conference.
Karina Edmonds
Department of Energy
Karina Edmonds of the Department of Energy explained that her job is to encourage small companies and entrepreneurs to commercialize innovation from the national laboratories. Other federal agencies, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Institutes of Health, and Department of Defense, have adopted similar programs, and the Environmental Protection Agency is considering launching one.
Noting that she does not speak for the agency, she expressed disappointment in the DoE’s record of funding the underrepresented. Nevertheless, the DoE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office plans to double its female applicants. The DoE’s Office of Economic Impact and Diversity funds the hiring of graduate students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to work at the national labs and supports the commercialization of the technologies developed by the students. In addition, Dr. Edmonds introduced a program two years prior to the workshop called America’s Next Top Energy Innovator to enable startups to license up to three patents from DoE for an upfront fee of $1,000 to commercialize the technology.
Dr. Edmonds said that a relatively small percentage of woman and minority science and engineering PhDs apply for SBIR grants, perhaps because many don’t know about the program. As a PhD student at the California Institute of Technology, she herself was unaware of SBIR grants. She recommended that the SBIR program work harder to make graduate students aware of the program.
Dr. Edmonds also suggested that the SBIR program provide more information to prospective applicants to help them complete their applications. The U.S. government has taken many steps to simplify processes, and “the SBIR is an area ripe for innovation in terms of how to make it easier for folks to apply,” she said.
Dr. Edmonds also commented that streamlining the SBIR award process would benefit women and minorities who cannot afford to finance themselves during the long wait between grant applications and the award selection.
Eric Adolphe
CenterScope Technologies
Eric Adolphe of CenterScope Technologies offered the perspective of someone who has won 17 SBIR awards, successfully commercializing six. He shared his life story to illustrate the challenges that individuals from underrepresented groups face in pursuit of STEM careers. At SUNY-Buffalo, Mr. Adolphe originally majored in arts on a full scholarship. He abruptly changed his major to engineering on a bet with a roommate, who said that none of the college’s minority students could understand the challenges of engineering because they all majored in liberal arts. The college pulled Mr. Adolphe’s scholarship, and he enrolled in the less expensive City University of New York. Still unable to afford his living expenses, he became homeless for half a year.
A friend told him about the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering scholarship, and he won. After graduating, he worked for a federal defense contractor that promised him 20 percent royalties on sales of any product he originated. Mr. Adolphe built and sold a product to the Federal Aviation Administration, producing $300 million in sales. When the company failed to give him his share of royalties, he quit to start his own company.
At a trade show, Mr. Adolphe met Jim Garrett, an African American, who agreed to incubate the company. There, Mr. Adolphe learned about the SBIR program from a pamphlet passed around the office asking for applicants to solve an issue with NASA’s Challenger. On his first try, Mr. Adolphe won the SBIR award.
To develop the technology, the others in the company met without inviting Mr. Adolphe. He then established his own diverse team, comprised, as he put it, of “[his] cousin, a disabled Pakistani scientist, a heavy metal fan, and a former college track star” to take charge of the project. During the team’s presentation to NASA, the agency’s representatives said they would guarantee Phase II funding if the team could solve a particularly difficult problem. Mr. Adolphe said that the team wrote code overnight and received the funding, winning the NASA SBIR of the Year Award. Since then, Mr. Adolphe was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and won the SBIR program’s Tibbetts Award. In 2006, he sold his company and began teaching at American University and consulting for startups on how to apply for SBIR awards. He recommended that applicants seek help in writing their proposals from successful awardees.
Mr. Adolphe argued that money is one of the largest barriers to STEM careers for underrepresented populations. Many minorities opt to not pursue PhDs because of short-term financial concerns about career survival. In addition, he noted that not enough students enter the pipeline because they lack mentors
and role models. “Every time I was about to quit, someone pulled me out,” Mr. Adolphe said.
Jagannathan Sankar
North Carolina A&T State University
In an additional panel presentation, Jagannathan Sankar, Distinguished University Professor of mechanical engineering at North Carolina A&T State University, discussed his work leading the university’s NSF Engineering Research Center. The first Historically Black University to win the coveted grant, which supports university research in partnership with industry, Dr. Sankar indicated that NCAT is a leader in broad-based advanced materials creation. Its ERC aims to create world-leading innovative technologies in biodegradable metals for medical implants that dissolve inside the body when no longer needed. The revolutionary innovation would eliminate the need for multiple surgeries and would reduce health care costs.
Following an interdisciplinary strategy, shared Dr. Sankar, the ERC for Revolutionizing Metallic Biomaterials (RMB) trains next-generation students and researchers to become global leaders in the creation of new industries and spinoffs. This is achieved by working with current leaders, ranging from the University of Pittsburgh to the University of Cincinnati (USA partners), to the Hannover Medical School in Germany (a global partner), as well as appropriate large companies and SBIR firms. Undergraduate, graduate, and faculty researchers also participate in research exchange and travel programs to Germany and Asia.
In addition to 10 foundational science innovation projects, the ERC is pursuing eight mission-oriented projects, following a specific plan identifying clinical needs, industry partners, patent positions, and other factors. It also works with world leaders establishing industry standards.
For example, in the process of fulfilling its mission, ERC’s work supports innovations and spinoffs, such as NanoMag and OrthoKinetic Technologies, two small businesses working in SBIR projects on in vivo testing of lightweight magnesium, which disappears in the body over time, and GLP mechanical evaluation activities. Further, ERC-RMB has recently signed a licensing agreement with a California-based research group, Incube Labs, for commercializing the innovation.
DISCUSSION
An audience member noted NASA’s unheralded success in investing in computer communications hardware at Minority-Serving Institutions, such as Morgan State University. These connections grew into close daily working relationships until the program ended due to budget constraints.
Dr. Wang said NSF has visited the MIT, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon business schools, but melding the technology and business disciplines does not address all that is needed to provide S&E researchers with business and entrepreneurship skills. Scientists and engineers also need enough self-knowledge to step aside for another CEO, if needed.
Mr. Adolphe said that partnering a minority institution with a business school is not enough. Rather, the SBIR applicant needs to partner with someone who is skilled at SBIR applications to win an award.
Dr. Edmonds noted that the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship encourages business competitions at colleges and universities. DoE sponsored a national business competition last year at six regional nodes.
An audience member said that if federal agencies do not address the drop in Phase I and II woman- and minority-owned SBIR awardees, then Congress should consider mandating outcomes with the next reauthorization.
Timothy McClees said that Congress is looking at these issues. In addition, he said, agency reviewers need to come from the schools from which woman and minority applicants are drawn. Today, many SBIR reviewers come from large institutions and are drawn to researchers from organizations they know and trust. Woman and minority reviewers from smaller institutions could level the playing field over time.
Dr. Wang said that an NSF study found that woman and minority SBIR awardees do not have lower funding rates than non-woman- or minority-owned businesses but that women and minorities do get a low numbers of awards. Thus, the NSF is working on increasing the number of applications in the pipeline.
