Review of the SBIR and STTR Programs at the Department of Energy (2020) / Chapter Skim
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3 DOE SBIR/STTR Processes
3 DOE SBIR/STTR Processes
Pages 49-82
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From page 49... ...
Additional data and background information were obtained from the DOE website and the committee's data request to the SBIR/STTR Programs Office. CHAPTER OVERVIEW The chapter begins with a description of the administrative structure of the SBIR and STTR programs within DOE.
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From page 50... ...
Overall, the committee found considerable consistency across the offices in terms of their adherence to the formal processes and procedures articulated by the DOE SBIR/STTR Programs Office. Individual program offices view the SBIR/STTR programs from the lens of their unique scientific missions, and the committee found differences across offices in how they identify and use small businesses to meet their research and development needs.
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From page 51... ...
computational and networking which includes DOE potential consumers, capabilities to analyze, model, simulate, STTR: $2,678,000 labs/academia/industry national labs and predict complex phenomena important to the Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences (BES) To support fundamental research to SBIR: $53,652,000 1 National labs; scientific National labs, academia, understand, predict, and ultimately user facilities (e.g., and industry.
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From page 52... ...
proliferation and reducing the threat of other federal labs, nuclear and radiological terrorism STTR: $1,201,753 internal advisors around the world Energy Efficiency and To create and sustain American SBIR:$50,991,599 9 Office's roadmap, created Reviewer selection Renewable Energy (EERE) leadership in the transition to a global using input primarily contracted to the Oak clean energy economy STTR:$7,170,348 from national labs and Ridge Institute for academia, with some Science and Education input from industry, trade associations, and consultants Environmental Management To address the nation's Cold War SBIR: $1,120,000 1 National labs and other National labs (Pacific (EM)
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From page 53... ...
To advance nuclear power to meet the SBIR: $20,600,000 4 National labs and 15-20 Review process managed nation's energy, environmental, and universities with nuclear by Idaho National national security needs STTR: $2,873,502 engineering departments Laboratory (usually from Brookhaven, other labs, and universities with nuclear reactors) Office of Electricity (OE)
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From page 54... ...
before deadlines set by the SBIR/STTR Programs Office. TTMs manage the selection of reviewers and oversee the technical merit review process, though parts of this are sometimes subcontracted 2 Starting in FY 2019, the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability split into two offices -- one on grid reliability (Office of Electricity Delivery)
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From page 55... ...
Offices take a variety of approaches to staffing the position of TTM. Although Congress mandates that funds be allocated to the SBIR/STTR programs, it does not separately fund the administration of the programs, and unlike the central SBIR/STTR Programs Office, staff in the 12 program offices spend the bulk of their efforts on non-SBIR/STTR programs -- with the result that the role of TTM is generally part-time and there can be one or more TTMs within an office.
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From page 56... ...
, and Release 2 included the other program offices. More recently Release 1 has included only four programs within the Office of Science (Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, and Nuclear Physics)
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From page 57... ...
Each Phase II application is reviewed by three technical merit reviewers, like Phase I, and is also subject to a separate commercialization potential review. Program offices have primary responsibility for managing the technical merit review of Phase II proposals, as they do for Phase I proposals and ranking the applications, but the Phase II commercialization potential review is primarily handled by the SBIR/STTR Programs Office.
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From page 58... ...
(percent) Phase I 315 79 25 25 Phase II 53 14 26 50 SOURCE: Department of Energy SBIR/STTR Programs Office data request.
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From page 59... ...
This discourages applicants from submitting non-responsive proposals. Second, starting in FY 2012, the DOE SBIR/STTR Programs Office set a limit of 10 applications by a single applicant to each Phase I solicitation.
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From page 60... ...
The DOE's SBIR/STTR Programs Office has the primary responsibility for reviews of the commercialization potential, which are conducted by subcontractors to CTR Management Group, LLC. Applications that receive a poor commercialization potential review may be deemed ineligible for funding.
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From page 61... ...
TABLE 3-4 Sources of DOE SBIR/STTR Phase I and II Reviewers, by Sector (FY 2018) Organization Affiliation Percentage of All Reviewers Business and Industry 12 DOE National Laboratory 46 Government 10 University 32 SOURCE: Department of Energy SBIR/STTR Programs Office.
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From page 62... ...
FINAL AWARD PROCESS According to data provided to the committee by DOE, during FY 2018 the DOE SBIR/STTR programs received 2,665 letters of intent followed by 1,548 Phase 1 proposals, and awarded 395 SBIR/STTR grants -- about one grant for 6 For example, the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research does this for collaborative proposals (see Box 3-1)
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From page 63... ...
While the overall process is the same across program offices, the decision making varies depending on their missions and communities. As described in the section that follows, some program offices favor proposals where the commercialization potential is within their scientific program while others allow a broader view of market opportunities.
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From page 64... ...
From the rankings, final awardees are determined by the SBIR/STTR Programs Office based upon the amount of funding available for each program in each office. The SBIR/STTR Programs Office notifies all applicants of selection or non-selection via email approximately 90 days after the application due date, and selections are posted on the DOE SBIR/STTR website within one day after email notifications are sent.
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From page 65... ...
A number of offices viewed the scope of the SBIR program narrowly. For example, some offices used the SBIR program to fund research on specialized equipment and software with the sole market or use to be in a national lab or by other stakeholders closely tied to the sponsoring office (e.g., university scientists advancing the scientific priorities of the sponsoring office)
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From page 66... ...
According to the SBIR/STTR Programs Office, the objectives of this meeting are to provide face-to-face meetings between principal investigators and DOE program office staff, face-to-face meetings between principal investigators and the DOE Commercialization Assistance Vendor,
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From page 67... ...
. COMMERCIALIZATION ASSISTANCE DOE offers funding for commercialization assistance for Phase I and II awardees, which can range from broad assistance in preparing an overall commercialization plan to market research, identification of strategic partners, and help with regulatory compliance.
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Collaborative Topic Example: Photonic Memory Controller Module (P-MCM) An example of a collaborative topic is the development of a photonic memory controller module (P-MCM)
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. In addition, as of FY 2019, DOE has implemented a Commercialization Assistance Pilot Program (Phase IIC)
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There are opportunities for DOE to better coordinate its overall diversity and inclusion outreach with the SBIR/STTR Programs Office, requiring the individual program offices to broaden the base of proposal reviewers and to help diversify the applicant and awardee base. Evidence from Award Data Recent award data reveal that the proportion of awards to woman-owned firms and firms owned by socially and economically disadvantaged (underrepresented)
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From page 71... ...
16.0 14.0 13.7 12.2 12.0 Percentage of all SBIR/STTR Awards 10.0 8.3 8.0 6.0 6.0 5.7 5.1 4.6 4.6 4.1 4.2 4.0 3.6 2.8 2.8 2.0 0.0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Fiscal Year FIGURE 3-4 Percentage of total DOE SBIR/STTR awards to firms from underrepresented groups, by award year. NOTE: Underrepresented groups are those self-identifying as "socially and economically disadvantaged" on the application.
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From page 72... ...
The percentage of awards to woman-owned firms overall averages 5.65 percent, but ranges from zero to 12.94 percent. For underrepresented groups, the distribution of awards ranges from zero to 8.91 percent.8 DOE Efforts to Improve Diversity Improving diversity is a programmatic goal for SBIR and STTR, and efforts to improve diversity are being undertaken more broadly at DOE and its SBIR/STTR Programs Office.
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From page 73... ...
These represent a substantial effort to improve outreach to minorityowned and woman-owned firms; however, greater efforts could be taken to link DOE-wide diversity and inclusion measures to DOE's SBIR/STTR programs. Factors Affecting Diversity Efforts to improve diversity undertaken at both DOE and the DOE SBIR/STTR Programs Office are encouraging, but several factors seem to contribute to the difficulty in addressing it successfully.
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From page 74... ...
Data on the demographics of applicants is collected by the SBIR/STTR Programs Office, as are data on the Phase 0 program, but individual program offices lack visibility into this demographic information and therefore do not maintain data on diversity nor consider it in their review and selection processes. TTMs also have no visibility into whether applicants are new to the program.
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From page 75... ...
At national labs, for example, women and underrepresented groups that DOE is seeking to reach comprise only a small share of leadership or research and technical management positions.10 Similarly, at universities underrepresented minorities comprise less than 10 percent and women comprise 32 percent of all full professors (IES, 2019)
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From page 76... ...
Overall program information and specific information on FOAs can be communicated to a more diverse group of applicants through state agencies and other regional actors and publicized at regional conferences important to the field, and FOAs can also be publicized in media popular with underrepresented groups. DOE's SBIR/STTR Programs Office should also provide guidance to the individual offices regarding strategies for broadening the reviewer pool and should ensure that reviewer pools do become more diverse.
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From page 77... ...
Despite some evidence of efforts by both DOE as a whole and DOE's SBIR/STTR Programs Office to improve outreach to woman-owned firms, minority-owned firms, or firms in underserved areas, DOE has not measurably increased successful applications from these groups. There are opportunities for DOE to better coordinate its overall diversity and inclusion outreach with the SBIR/STTR Programs Office, requiring the individual program offices to broaden
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From page 78... ...
Although efforts by the SBIR/STTR Programs Office, which include Phase 0 and webinars, have increased the quality of applications, the topic, reviewer, and awardee selection processes limit the diversity of program participants. Finding 3.3: Outreach to potential applicants who have never done business with DOE and its SBIR/STTR programs is limited.
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From page 79... ...
The SBIR/STTR Programs Office should communicate information on exemplary proposals to state agencies and other regional actors and publicize this information at regional conferences important to the field. This can form a part of general outreach to these entities to increase awareness of the SBIR/STTR funding opportunity.
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• What is your relationship with the national labs? • Can firms or industry propose ideas?
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From page 81... ...
about the SBIR/STTR programs, what would that be? TABLE 3-6 DOE Program Managers Interview Dates and Participants DOE Office Interview Date DOE Attendees Office of Science Office of Advanced Scientific Computing 6/25/2018 Richard Carlson Research (ASCR)
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