SBIR Program Diversity and Assessment Challenges Report of a Symposium (2004) / Chapter Skim
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II Proceedings: Opening Remarks
II Proceedings: Opening Remarks
Pages 37-44
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From page 39... ...
Wessner's welcome and thanked the three groups of people who had gathered for the symposium: These were the members of the steering committee, who would serve for three years, beginning with this "kickoff" symposium; those who had agreed to do the actual research for the evaluation of the SBIR program; and the agency representatives, "who are going to be making the major contribution to this activity." To all three groups, he expressed gratitude for their help and support in what he called a "participatory activity." The study, he said "would not be a GAO look-at-the-problem" exercise, or an attempt to ferret out incompetent people or teams. The panel would try to discern where best practices exist and how they can be improved "in what I personally believe to already be a very successful and important program." Obviously, he said, the study has the potential for a signifi 1The Committee membership is listed on pp.
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From page 40... ...
Each of the agencies had been asked to give the steering committee a description of what they were doing to assess their SBIR programs: what kind of data they were gathering, what kind of evaluations they were already doing or planning, and what views they had on how their activities and how the overall effort could be enhanced. He said that the symposium would feature "full discussions of each of the five largest agency SBIR programs." These five accounted for some 96 percent of the $1.6 billion program, so that it "makes sense to pick them," he said.
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From page 41... ...
Small business employs just over 50 percent of all workers in the country, he said, and after the recession of the early 1990s, he was astonished at the role played by small businesses in pushing the economic rebound. "I had to have my staff look at these numbers to verify them," he said, "because at first they were unbelievable." He categorized America's businesses according to size, with the largest group employing at least 5,000 people and the smallest employing zero to four employees.
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From page 42... ...
program is focused on the academic and not-for-profit research community. STTR reserves a specific percentage of federal R&D funding for award to small business and nonprofit research institution partners.
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From page 43... ...
If a procurement cycle was fourteen months long and the lifetime of data-handling equipment is eighteen months, the procuring agency has state-of-the-art equipment for only four months. "So what they are doing is buying performance," he said.
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From page 44... ...
"We're going to need new creativity, and new innovations, and it will be largely the small-business part of our private sector, I believe, that will be responsible for these new creativities." He thanked the steering committee for inviting him to participate in the symposium, and for its "commitment to creativity." He closed by saying he wished he could participate more fully, contributing his experience in science and innovation, but the pressures of the congressional election cycle left him little time for any activities beyond campaigning.
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