SBIR at NASA (2016) / Chapter Skim
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6 Participation of Women and Minorities
6 Participation of Women and Minorities
Pages 118-147
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From page 118... ...
. This chapter reviews the participation by women and minorities in the NASA SBIR program, using agency data and the 2011 Survey of NASA SBIR award recipients.
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From page 119... ...
In the committee's related report on the Small Business Technology Transfer Program, its recommends that the SBA change its definitions to address congressional intent with regard to minorities. Recommendation B reads -- SBA should change its definitions to address congressional intent with regard to minorities.b 1.
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From page 120... ...
. Participants in the workshop examined broad demographic trends in the science and engineering workforce and statistical measures from the SBIR program for women and minorities, and searched for pragmatic solutions to boost SBIR awards to women and minorities.
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From page 121... ...
." 6 Although this formulation has been traditional among SBIR stakeholders, it has several unintended consequences: • It focuses attention entirely on company ownership, rather than the "participation" described in the statute. There are many different ways to participate in the SBIR program, and only one of them is ownership.
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From page 122... ...
, but in every one of the 9 years of data provided, WOSB success rates were lower than those for all FIGURE 6-1 NASA Phase I SBIR success rates for WOSB and non-WOSB applications, FY2005-2014. SOURCE: NASA applications and awards database.
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From page 123... ...
. Reflecting a sharper than average decline in applications together with lower success rates, the MOSB share of Phase I SBIR awards declined across the study period, from a peak of almost 14 percent in FY2007 to a new low of FIGURE 6-2 NASA Phase I SBIR success rates for MOSB and non-MOSB applications, FY2005-2014.
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From page 124... ...
• Declining applications and flat or declining success rates inevitably led to declining numbers of awards to MOSB. • The percentage share of SBIR awards to MOSBs fell steadily beginning in FY2008, a function of both declining applications and relatively low success rates.
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From page 125... ...
And as a result of these factors, the WOSB share of Phase II awards declined to below 8 percent in FY2011 and FY2012. Falling applications and lower success rates resulted in a decline in the number of MOSB Phase II awards, and in their share of all awards.
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From page 126... ...
SURVEYING MINORITY GROUPS The 2011 Survey addressed the participation of women and minorities in the NASA SBIR program. It is the first to the committee's knowledge to probe beneath the SBA definition of "socially and economically disadvantaged groups" (SEDGs)
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From page 127... ...
12 TABLE 6-1 Minority PIs in NASA SBIR Projects, Reported by 2011 Survey Respondents, as Percentage of Total Respondents, by Phase Percentage of Phase I Percentage of Phase II Minority PI Respondents Respondents Yes 14 11 No 86 89 Total 100 100 N=Number of Respondents 119 177 SOURCE: 2011 Survey, Question 14B. 11 Phase I data were originally collected as a part of an effort to add statistical analysis to the assessment.
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From page 128... ...
Probing more deeply into the ethnic distribution of minority company ownership allows for identification of further issues. Overall, this distribution is quite similar to that for minority PIs, in that responses from 75 percent of both Phase I and Phase II respondents reported majority owners of Asian-Indian and Asian-Pacific ethnicity.
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From page 129... ...
There is no evidence that any concrete actions emerged from any of these activities. The NASA SBIR program office does not track outreach to womanand minority-owned firms in any systematic way and did not provide any data connecting outreach to applicants.
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From page 130... ...
PERSPECTIVES ON IMPROVING DIVERSITY To further examine the participation of women, minorities, and other underrepresented groups in the SBIR/STTR programs and to identify ways to increase that participation, the committee convened a workshop on February 7, 2013, titled "Innovation, Diversity, and Success in the SBIR/STTR Programs." 14 The workshop examined broad demographic trends in the science and engineering workforce and the need for more female and minority representation within that workforce, as well as pragmatic solutions to boost SBIR awards to women and minorities. Personal experiences shared at the Academies' workshop illustrated how diversity can advance innovation; the blending of multiple viewpoints often casts a new lens on old problems, leading to innovative solutions.
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From page 131... ...
and other Minority Servicing Institutions; a workshop at the NASA Langley Research Center that included participation from faculty from several local area HBCUs on the subject of outreach to minority business communities and universities; and a meeting with personnel from the National Hispanic University in San Jose California to discuss outreach to the Latin-American community." _____________________ a HUBZones are Historically Underutilized Business Zones, in which the SBA encourages economic development and employment growth by providing access to more federal contracting opportunities. SOURCE: NASA, Annual SBIR/STTR Report to SBA, 2013.
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From page 132... ...
The committee believes that non-merit based selection would dilute the signal of technical quality and commercial promise that SBIR awards now telegraph to potential investors, a factor that is key to helping SBIR companies to grow and bring new innovations to the market. They further noted that such quotas might open the door for future setasides -- for example based on geographic location -- that could balkanize the program.
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From page 133... ...
There are no documented outreach programs of any size or duration. ANNEX 6-A APPLICATIONS AND AWARDS FOR THE NASA SBIR PROGRAM, FY2005-2014 Phase I SBIR Award Demographics Woman-owned Small Businesses Phase I Applications and Success Rates The number of applications received from WOSBs declined steadily over the study period (see Figure 6-4)
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FIGURE 6-5 NASA SBIR Phase I success rates from WOSBs and from all applicants, FY2005-2014. SOURCE: NASA awards and applications database.
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FIGURE 6-7 WOSB share of all NASA SBIR Phase I awards, FY2005-2014. SOURCE: NASA awards and applications database.
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Overall, the number of MOSB applications declined by more than one-half during the study period. FIGURE 6-8 NASA SBIR Phase I proposals from MOSBs and all applicants, FY2005-2014.
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, success rates for MOSBs were less than half of those for non-MOSB firms. Across the entire study period, the average success was 25.9 percent for non-MOSBs and 14.5 percent for MOSBs.
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. FIGURE 6-9 Success rates for NASA SBIR Phase I applications from MOSBs and from non-MOSBs, FY2005-2014.
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FIGURE 6-11 NASA SBIR Phase II applications from all applicants and from WOSBs, FY2005-2014. SOURCE: NASA awards and applications database.
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SOURCE: NASA awards and applications database. As with Phase I and MOSB Phase II, success rates for WOSBs were lower than those for non-WOSBs in every year of the study period except for FY2005, as shown in Figure 6-12.
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FIGURE 6-13 NASA SBIR Phase II awards to WOSBs, FY2005-2012. SOURCE: NASA awards and applications database.
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Minority-owned Small Businesses Phase II Applications NASA SBIR Phase II applications data are missing for FY2013 and FY2014, so only limited conclusions can be drawn, especially about more recent FIGURE 6-14 WOSB share of all NASA SBIR Phase II awards, FY2005-2012. SOURCE: NASA awards and applications database.
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From page 143... ...
Figure 6-15 shows that MOSB and non-MOSB applications tracked quite closely until FY2011 when non-MOSB applications responded to the ARRA funding by rising sharply while MOSB applications declined sharply and remained low in FY2012. Overall, the MOSB share of Phase II applications declined over the time period, although data for the most recent fiscal years is not available (see Figure 6-16)
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FIGURE 6-16 MOSB share of NASA SBIR Phase II Applications, FY20052012. SOURCE: NASA awards and applications database.
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These data lead directly to the steady decline in the MOSB share of all Phase II SBIR awards, from 13 percent in FY2006 to 6.8 percent in FY2012 (see Figure 6-19)
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FIGURE 6-19 MOSB share of all NASA SBIR Phase II awards, FY2006-2012. SOURCE: NASA awards and applications database.
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2 1 50.0 N&R Engineering 3 1 33.3 Materials and Systems Research, Inc. 3 1 33.3 NOTE: The conversion rate is the number of Phase II awards received by a company expressed as a percentage of the number of Phase I awards received by that company.
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