SBIR Program Diversity and Assessment Challenges Report of a Symposium (2004) / Chapter Skim
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Panel III — SBIR at NASA
Panel III — SBIR at NASA
Pages 93-107
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From page 93... ...
The techniques of GRIN can make light travel by a curved path through optical materials, which reduces the number of lenses required in complicated optical systems. He said he had believed that "by 1975 everyone in the world would be using gradient index optics." The basis of that belief, and of others with whom he worked at Western Electric, in Princeton, New Jersey, was the thenrapid development of picture phones.
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From page 94... ...
You figure out how to make it work or you go out of business." Since then, his company had gone up and down in terms of sales and people, but it was now very successful. He concluded by saying that the story of his company should alert the study panel to the need to pay careful attention to the location of each company on its own particular "time line." He said that if a company could be evaluated more than once as it developed, the study panel might detect the kinds of fluctuations experienced by his own company.
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From page 95... ...
Another is to invest in new technologies that have the potential of bringing technical solutions to NASA. These objectives are part of a larger suite of R&D activities in which NASA seeks collaborations to make new technology more useful internally and to carry technology to commercial partnerships outside the agency.
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From page 96... ...
· Leverage existing commercial networks to assist small businesses: NASA maintains a network of commercialization offices throughout the United States and tries to leverage that network in support of the SBIR program. The offices include technology incubators and regional technology trans fer centers, some of which were refocused last year specifically to help the SBIR program arrange business services and find partners in the in vestment community to help move companies into Phase III.
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From page 97... ...
In one innovation that has narrowed that gap, NASA had recently finished implementation of a paperless documentation system, spanning all activities from solicitation, development, and publication through the contracting process. The system, called Electronic Handbooks, was designed to speed data collection, improve management processes, and to make that data accessible to more people.
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From page 98... ...
FIGURE 4 Minimum cumulative revenues generated by application of technology developed under NASA SBIR 19831996 Phase II Awards.
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From page 99... ...
He would also like to be able to identify themes for program improvements to help guide changes in the SBIR program. During the 20 years since the legislation was passed, he said, we have moved through a generation of new techniques; the economy is different, and the people running the economy are different.
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From page 100... ...
Finifter, who had participated in the SBIR Fast Track evaluation and a study for NASA Langley Research Center, used the analogy of fruit to illustrate the many dynamic components of the SBIR program. He said that while fruit is good in general, it comes in many forms -- apples, oranges, bananas, and strawberries.
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From page 101... ...
The experience of the DoD Fast Track study, he said, would certainly help the current study panel review methodology and extrapolate it from the agency to the national policy level. In particular, he reported that the Fast Track team had discovered the great value of talking not only to firms but also to program managers and program points of contact in order to understand how the program was implemented.
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From page 102... ...
Finifter, "Evaluating the Small Business Innovation Research Program: Evidence for NASA Langley Research Center," Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy, Center for Public Policy Research, The College of William and Mary, Policy Research Report, 1997. 18Robert B
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From page 103... ...
The second additional expectation, he said, was that it advance the mission of the sponsoring agency in some meaningful way -- to help NASA or other agency do its job better. So an SBIR project must clear three significant hurdles to be successful, and it must do so for a total investment (Phase I plus Phase II)
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From page 104... ...
But NASA also feels it's part of their mission to spin technology out into the commercial sector." He said that the SBIR program benefits from this objective, and from the Technology Commercialization Centers, as well as from NASA's publication of Tech Briefs, Aerospace Innovations, and other communications to the science and technology community. Taking a slightly different view of what NASA was doing, he called attention to the inherent difficulty faced by a federal agency in guiding projects into the commercial arena.
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From page 105... ...
Given the many uncertainties of this kind, he recommended that the study panel look for ways to better transfer technology to the mission agencies in ways that maximize its productivity. DISCUSSION Reconciling Differing Mission Orientations Duncan Moore of the University of Rochester, pursuing a point made by the previous speaker, asked Dr.
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From page 106... ...
He suggested that it should probably duplicate the success rate of a "reasonable-size company." Balancing Technical Merit and Commercial Potential Charles Wessner thanked Dr. Norwood for his "engaging and open-ended presentation," and for the series of questions he posed to the study panel.
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From page 107... ...
He repeated that the appropriate enterprise must first approve each project, and then the source selection authority examines the program in toto and asks probing questions about it "in a collaborative and ongoing process."
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