SBIR at the National Science Foundation (2015) / Chapter Skim
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2 NSF and Its SBIR Program
2 NSF and Its SBIR Program
Pages 22-53
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From page 22... ...
NSF provides funding after receiving proposals requesting specific amounts of support for well-defined, meritorious projects, usually submitted by applicants in response to various NSF funding opportunities announced on the NSF website. A merit review process is used to select proposals for funding from the more than 42,000 proposals currently received yearly by NSF in all its programs.
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From page 23... ...
The NSF SBIR program operates inde pendently from the academic divisions of NSF, but works closely to collaborate with them where possible. NSF program officers that are responsible for manag ing SBIR are required to remain current on initiatives in their fields across the NSF overall I/UCRC I-Coprs GOALI STTR Industry SBIR ERC STC PFI Investors Resources Invested "Ditch of Death" Valley of Death Foundations Small Businesses Universities Discovery Development Commercialization FIGURE 2-1 Portfolio of NSF programs to address the "Valley of Death." SOURCE: Presentation by Barry Johnson, May 1, 2015 at the Academies workshop on the STTR program, Washington, DC.
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From page 24... ...
Sources for this chapter include interviews with staff members, information from the survey and case studies, and documentation from NSF, notably the NSF and SBIR websites and reports of the SBIR Advisory Committee. To our knowledge, there are no formal internal assessments by the National Science Foundation or the National Science Board of the SBIR program at NSF.2 FUNDING DECISIONS The decision to fund some projects and not others is at the heart of competitive awards such as the NSF SBIR program.
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From page 25... ...
Jesus Soriano (a PD at NSF) observed that in health and medical technologies considerable efforts are made to align SBIR technologies with the academic priorities funded by other NSF programs: "the SBIR program can be seen as one endpoint of the NSF funding pipeline."3 Generally, new topics are published every six months.
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From page 26... ...
What is not entirely clear is whether the broad pool of applicants and potential applicants understand that the door is open to projects not explicitly covered in the solicitation. Although the language on the topics webpage indicates that NSF is open to such projects, it is probably fair to say that the language is not welcoming: "Certain innovative technologies with high commercial potential may not appear to fit under the nine current solicitation topics or corresponding subtopics.
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From page 27... ...
All are required to sign conflict of interest forms. Commercial reviewers are expected to consider the basic selection criteria as well as additional prompts provided by NSF in the form of a set of questions, which fall into the following four areas 6 NSF SBIR/STTR solicitation topics, accessed May 19, 2014, |
From page 28... ...
Criterion 2: What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? This criterion addresses the overall impact of the proposed activity.
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From page 29... ...
. 8 NSF SBIR/STTR Phase I Commercial Review Form (revised May 2008)
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From page 30... ...
During the most recent award cycle, NSF built on its existing Phase I awardees conference to include a boot camp organized around the principles of the relatively new iCorps program highlighted in Box 2-3. The focus was on ensuring that awardees made the effort necessary to fully connect with potential customers, and to ensure that the eventual product would meet real needs in the marketplace.11 The NSF SBIR/STTR Advisory Committee reviewed the I-Corps approach and concluded that "I-Corps has the potential to accelerate the development curve for STTR grantees, because it promises to shorten the time delay (a.k.a.
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From page 31... ...
This section does not address opportunities that were lost to funding gaps, or changes that could be made to reduce them. NSF has introduced a number of initiatives in recent years to address the problems of gaps in funding between award phases.
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From page 32... ...
Less than 1 percent reported that the company ceased all operations. Aside from the obvious direct impact of delayed projects, funding gaps can have long-term consequences especially for smaller companies; where in some cases there is insufficient work to retain key project staff during the gap period.
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From page 33... ...
that the size of awards should be increased (a view especially prevalent before the changes made during the 2011 program reauthorization) , the survey asked about the possible trade-off between the size of awards and the number of awards: unless NSF funding for the SBIR program increases, larger awards imply fewer awards.
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From page 34... ...
. WOMEN AND MINORITIES One of the four congressional objectives for the SBIR/STTR program is "to foster and encourage participation by minority and disadvantaged persons in technological innovation."13 Within the SBIR program, the relevant metric is under tood to be company ownership,14 and SBA defines "minority and disadvan s taged persons" in the context of the SBIR program as "socially and economically disadvantaged" (SED)
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From page 35... ...
Furthermore, SBA definitions of "socially and economically disadvantaged" have the effect of largely obscuring agency performance in support of the congressional objective. Analyzing Participation by Minorities and Women The participation of woman- and minority-owned companies in NSF's SBIR program is informed by data provided by NSF directly, by data obtained by Academies17 survey, and by an Academies workshop on diversity.
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From page 36... ...
were lower for MOSBs than for non-MOSBs -- with an average difference of about 6 percentage points. • The MOSB share of SBIR awards fell steadily from 2003 to 2012, a function of declining numbers of applications and relatively low success rates.
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From page 37... ...
These issues are addressed via data drawn from the 2011 Survey, which are the subject of the next section. Evidence Provided by Academies Survey Data The 2011 Survey data are especially valuable in understanding the role of women and minorities because they extend beyond company ownership to include an important part of the talent pipeline leading to eventual SBIR awards: the principal investigators (PIs)
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From page 38... ...
percent of Phase II respondents reported that this was the case for their project. 20 The survey then asked respondents to provide details about the PI's racial/ethnic background, using the detailed categories drawn from SBA definitions, with the addition of an "other" category to ensure that all respondents who wished to claim SED status could do so.
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From page 39... ...
However, probing more deeply into the ethnic distribution of SED company ownership allows for further identification of issues. Overall, this distribution is quite similar to that for SED PIs, in that more than 70 percent of both Phase I and Phase II respondents reported majority owners of Asian-Indian and AsianPacific ethnicity.
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From page 40... ...
The 2011 Survey also sought information about the gender of PIs. Respondents reported that about 13 percent of PIs were women, for both Phase I and Phase II awards.21 The survey also addressed the extent to which SBIR awards are made to woman-owned businesses.
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Hispanics, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans together comprise 36 percent of the U.S. population and 26 percent of STEM graduates, but less than 10 percent of all SBIR awards.
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From page 42... ...
The most current minutes from the NSF SBIR Advisory Board reflect this concern: "We recommend that IIP [the NSF Division for Industrial Innovation and Partnerships] focus on increasing the number of Phase I proposals submitted from 24 Ibid, pp.
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• The new Veteran's Research Supplement 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 networking and mentoring opportunities specifically for them at the annual grantees' conference.
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From page 44... ...
These include the following: • Investment in a number of high-quality program directors (PDs) , so that each PD is responsible for approximately 30 awards at any given point in time • Close and ongoing connection between PDs and companies, especially for Phase II and beyond • Selection for innovation and commercialization, with a particular empha sis on the latter • Additional bridge funding through the Phase IIB program • Additional commercialization assistance via third-party providers LARTA and Foresight • Tracking of outcomes at specified points post-award, via the telephone surveys managed by a long-time consultant, George Vermont • A range of partnership activities to leverage resources and capabilities Individual PDs are effectively in charge of the entire grant stream from initial draft topic to the conclusion of Phase IIB, which is as far downstream as NSF SBIR funding can reach.
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From page 45... ...
of Phase II respondents reported quarterly contact, while 15 percent reported monthly contact and 23 percent reported annual contact (see Table 2-11)
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However, 77 percent of respondents indicated that the PD's available time was sufficient or more than sufficient (see Table 2-14)
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However, only about 11 percent of respondents indicated that they received a substantial amount of technical help from the PD (scores of 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale) ; almost 50 percent reported minimal help (Table 2-16)
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Nineteen percent of surveyed companies indicated substantial support (scores of 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale) and 37 percent reported minimal help in this area (see Table 2-18)
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From page 49... ...
The NSF program managers have significant business experience that can be extremely valuable in advising companies." SOURCE: 2011 Survey. Open-Ended Responses Related to PD Activities Survey respondents were offered the opportunity to provide open-ended comments related to their PD.26 Although each response is different, it is possible to sort them into positive, negative, and neutral comments.
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From page 50... ...
So the best comparison is not with staff at other agencies, but with staff at small venture or hedge funds. PDs are carefully selected, have strong backgrounds in business and technology commercialization, often in startups or other highly innovative firms, and are also high-level subject matter experts in specific science and engineering disciplines (see Box 2-8)
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From page 51... ...
The business people at NSF are confused about alternative business models like open source models." "Our second project manager did not seem to have enough time or understanding of our products." "Our technology was broad based, but NSF wanted us to find commercialization too fast without improving technology." "The NSF SBIR Program Manager tried to help us through the administrative pro cess effectively. However, in terms of help in our specific technology/science/ commercialization I do not feel the Program Manager was adequately qualified.
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From page 52... ...
, that developed, manufactured, and sold products for genetic testing and research to clinical and research laboratories worldwide." SOURCE: Summary and quotations drawn from discussions with six NSF program directors. NSF also provided biographical summaries of all the PDs for review.
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From page 53... ...
Also apparent is that the outcomes reflect the focus on commercialization. NSF reports via its own research that about 70 percent of Phase II awardees reach the market; that figure is largely confirmed by Academies survey data.
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