Assessment of the SBIR and STTR Programs at the National Institutes of Health (2022) / Chapter Skim
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4 The Landscape of NIH SBIR/STTR Awardees
4 The Landscape of NIH SBIR/STTR Awardees
Pages 109-144
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From page 109... ...
1540-526) .2 The geographic distribution of awards across states is examined in terms of program success rates and total SBIR/STTR activity, normalized to other forms of NIH research and development (R&D)
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From page 110... ...
. In addition, starting the analysis with 2001 allows a 5year look back at applicants to measure total award volume for applicants more consistently across the sample period years.
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From page 111... ...
It is especially troubling that the proportion of applications with missing data has risen steadily for both race and gender over time. DISTRIBUTION OVER TIME: APPLICATIONS, AWARDS, AND TOTAL NIH FUNDING Table 4-2 reports total annual spending amounts for the SBIR and STTR programs at NIH in inflation-adjusted dollars, the total number of SBIR and STTR applications, and the total number of funded SBIR and STTR applications over the sample period.
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From page 112... ...
As shown in Table 4-2, SBIR spending at NIH increased roughly in proportion to the size of the total NIH budget, with the former increasing by 130 percent in inflation-adjusted terms from 2001 to 2019 and the latter by 92 percent over the same period. According to data from NIH's RePORTER database, STTR expenditures, on the other hand, went up by 452 TABLE 4-1 NIH SBIR/STTR Applications: Annual Trends in Missing Demographic Data for Principal Investigators Percentage of Applications with Missing Data (by category)
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From page 113... ...
, the number of NIH STTR applications increased by more than 200 percent, ranging from 300–400 applications per year in the early 2000s to more than 1,100 per year since 2014. From 2001 to 2019, STTR's share of the number of total NIH SBIR/STTR awards also rose, from 8.6 percent to 16.6 percent.
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From page 114... ...
dollars) 2001 20,458,556 2.50 0.15 394,208 25,528 2002 23,321,382 2.50 0.15 465,991 30,690 2003 27,166,715 2.50 0.15 509,158 30,997 2004 28,036,627 2.50 0.30 545,939 66,970 2005 28,594,357 2.50 0.30 551,723 73,316 2006 28,560,417 2.50 0.30 551,342 69,825 2007 29,178,504 2.50 0.30 561,783 72,246 2008 29,607,070 2.50 0.30 567,202 73,196 2009 30,545,098 2.50 0.30 606,708 88,511 2010 31,238,000 2.50 0.30 607,714 83,423 2011 30,916,345 2.50 0.30 591,747 74,185 2012 30,860,913 2.60 0.35 593,858 86,783 2013 29,315,822 2.70 0.35 565,006 79,614 2014 30,142,653 2.80 0.40 606,052 93,563 2015 30,311,349 2.90 0.40 627,837 95,575 2016 32,311,349 3.00 0.45 692,684 115,134 2017 34,300,999 3.20 0.45 778,644 122,932 2018 37,311,349 3.20 0.45 854,150 132,167 2019 39,313,000 3.20 0.45 907,896 140,938 SOURCE: Application data provided by NIH; NIH RePORTER data.
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From page 115... ...
THE LANDSCAPE OF NIH SBIR/STTR AWARDEES 115 Total Number of Number of Total Number of Number of Number of SBIR STTR Number of SBIR STTR Applications Applications Applications Applications Applications Applications Funded Funded Funded 4,634 4,228 406 1,773 1,620 153 5,170 4,819 351 1,945 1,793 152 6,458 5,984 474 2,078 1,923 155 7,942 7,155 787 2,255 1,939 316 7,298 6,400 898 1,988 1,710 278 6,611 5,528 1,083 1,880 1,619 261 5,804 4,551 1,253 1,840 1,591 249 5,560 4,508 1,052 1,928 1,679 249 6,026 5,103 923 2,015 1,723 292 8,359 7,519 840 1,877 1,625 252 7,677 6,891 786 1,568 1,379 189 6,960 6,168 792 1,708 1,464 244 6,423 5,541 882 1,537 1,285 252 6,490 5,384 1,106 1,747 1,459 288 6,872 5,618 1,254 1,681 1,398 283 9,210 7,246 1,891 1,803 1,460 328 7,633 6,065 1,454 1,914 1,560 317 7,676 6,187 1,454 2,194 1,784 375 7,536 6,127 1,390 2,191 1,809 363
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From page 116... ...
Program-wide Demographics As shown in Table 4-3, there was little discernible improvement in the overall participation rates for NIH's SBIR and STTR programs across multiple TABLE 4-3 Overall Demographic Trends in NIH SBIR/STTR Applications over Time Percentage of Percentage of Applications with Principal Applications with Investigator who is -- Owner who is -- Fiscal African Hispanic Year Woman American White Asian or Latine Woman Minority 2001 17.3 1.3 69.2 13.7 1.7 4.3 2.7 2002 17.2 1.0 69.3 15.5 1.8 2.6 1.3 2003 17.0 1.1 68.5 17.3 2.0 10.3 5.8 2004 17.0 0.9 68.8 17.7 1.9 11.4 6.1 2005 17.5 1.1 68.9 16.7 2.1 10.8 4.7 2006 17.0 1.0 67.0 16.5 2.1 12.4 5.2 2007 16.4 1.0 61.8 16.6 1.7 12.6 4.8 2008 16.9 0.9 59.5 16.3 1.7 13.3 4.7 2009 18.4 1.2 57.8 15.4 2.3 13.4 5.0 2010 17.8 1.0 53.6 15.9 2.1 14.0 5.7 2011 17.2 1.1 53.7 15.2 2.3 13.1 4.6 2012 16.9 1.2 54.2 15.1 2.2 13.1 4.4 2013 15.6 0.9 54.2 14.9 2.4 14.5 3.5 2014 16.3 1.4 53.8 17.2 2.4 13.0 3.9 2015 15.9 1.3 55.2 17.2 2.5 12.8 3.9 2016 16.0 1.6 55.0 17.0 3.1 13.3 3.9 2017 15.4 1.5 54.9 17.3 3.3 13.1 4.5 2018 16.1 1.2 53.2 17.8 3.1 13.7 4.8 2019 16.9 1.5 52.4 17.2 2.9 11.6 3.7 Average 16.8 1.2 59.0 16.4 2.3 12.0 4.5 SOURCE: Application data provided by NIH.
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From page 117... ...
As shown in Table 4-4, while women PIs and woman-owned small businesses remained flat as a share of total applications over the sample period, a steady increase in the number of applications addressing topics of importance to women increased steadily. This same pattern applies to awards to women's health topics, whose coverage increased by about 15 percentage points.
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From page 118... ...
.19 Taken together, these statistics suggest that women and minorities would reasonably be expected to constitute a substantially higher percentage of firm owners or PIs than is currently seen in the NIH SBIR and STTR programs. TABLE 4-4 NIH SBIR/STTR Programs: Descriptive Statistics Regarding Gender for All Applications and Funded Applications, by Fiscal Year Percentage of Applications Percentage of Funded Applications Abstract Abstract Business addresses Business addresses Fiscal PI is a owner is women's PI is a owner is women's Year woman a woman health woman a woman health 2001 17.3 4.3 26.7 17.1 3.3 26.7 2002 17.2 2.6 29.3 17.1 1.4 27.6 2003 17.0 10.3 30.4 16.8 7.6 28.1 2004 17.0 11.4 30.4 18.0 10.2 28.6 2005 17.5 10.8 32.9 17.5 8.8 31.2 2006 17.0 12.4 34.4 18.8 11.3 34.2 2007 16.4 12.6 34.9 17.4 10.8 35.2 2008 16.9 13.3 38.0 16.5 11.6 36.6 2009 18.4 13.4 37.4 18.3 12.1 37.9 2010 17.8 14.0 38.0 17.2 11.5 40.0 2011 17.2 13.1 42.7 17.6 11.0 45.0 2012 16.9 13.1 41.9 19.6 12.0 41.7 2013 15.6 14.5 39.1 18.5 12.9 40.2 2014 16.3 13.0 40.0 18.3 12.2 39.3 2015 15.9 12.8 40.6 17.3 10.2 40.0 2016 16.0 13.3 40.5 19.4 11.5 40.0 2017 15.4 13.1 41.3 18.0 12.0 42.9 2018 16.1 13.7 42.0 18.6 12.7 40.5 2019 16.9 11.6 41.8 17.9 12.7 42.4 Average 16.8 12.0 37.4 17.9 10.3 36.5 NOTE: PI = principal investigator.
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From page 119... ...
TABLE 4-5 NIH SBIR/STTR Programs: Descriptive Statistics Regarding Diversity for All Applications and Funded Applications, by Fiscal Year Percentage of All Applications Percentage of Funded Applications Business owner Business owner is from socially is from socially PI is Black, or economically Abstract PI is Black, or economically Abstract Fiscal Hispanic, or disadvantaged addresses Hispanic, disadvantaged addresses Year Latine group diversity or Latine group diversity 2001 3.0 2.7 7.7 1.4 2.1 7.7 2002 2.8 1.3 8.1 1.9 0.8 8.6 2003 3.1 5.8 9.5 2.1 2.8 9.7 2004 2.7 6.1 9.4 2.4 3.6 10.4 2005 3.2 4.7 9.3 2.7 3.3 9.1 2006 3.0 5.2 9.2 2.1 4.3 9.2 2007 2.7 4.8 10.2 2.3 3.6 10.5 2008 2.6 4.7 11.0 2.4 4.1 11.9 2009 3.5 5.0 11.1 3.0 3.5 11.9 2010 3.1 5.7 12.1 2.8 3.7 12.5 2011 3.4 4.6 12.2 2.7 3.6 13.4 2012 3.4 4.4 11.9 3.1 3.5 10.6 2013 3.3 3.6 11.8 4.0 2.7 11.1 (Continued)
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TABLE 4-5 Continued Percentage of All Applications Percentage of Funded Applications 120 Business owner Business owner is from socially is from socially PI is Black, or economically Abstract PI is Black, or economically Abstract Fiscal Hispanic, or disadvantaged addresses Hispanic, disadvantaged addresses Year Latine group diversity or Latine group diversity 2014 3.7 3.9 12.1 4.4 2.5 12.1 2015 3.8 3.9 12.1 3.8 2.7 12.7 2016 4.8 3.9 12.4 4.5 2.7 12.2 2017 4.8 4.5 12.5 4.4 2.6 11.8 2018 4.3 4.8 12.1 4.5 2.2 12.8 2019 4.4 3.7 13.1 4.8 3.4 13.3 Average 3.5 4.5 11.1 3.1 3.0 11.1 NOTE: PI = principal investigator. SOURCE: Application data provided by NIH.
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From page 121... ...
Overall, the programs became more competitive during the sample period, with overall success rates falling from 21.6 percent in 2001–2011 to 17.2 percent in 2012–2019 (see Table 4-8)
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TABLE 4-6 NIH SBIR/STTR Programs: Differences across ICs in Application Shares from Underrepresented Groups, Fiscal Years 2001–2011 122 Percentage of Applications IC (in order of Owner is from a decreasing Socially or SBIR/STTR Number of PI is African PI is Hispanic Owner is a Economically program size) Applications American PI is Asian or Latine PI is a Woman Woman Disadvantaged Group NCI 12,903 0.8 21.1 1.8 16.9 9.9 4.3 NIAID 9,571 0.9 17.3 1.7 17.5 7.3 3.7 NHLBI 7,553 1.2 14.2 2.0 14.0 8.5 4.0 NIGMS 5,197 0.6 19.7 1.8 12.7 7.5 4.1 NIDDK 4,643 1.4 15.0 1.8 17.9 10.9 4.4 NINDS 3,873 0.3 14.0 2.9 13.3 8.2 2.9 NICHD 3,454 1.5 9.1 2.0 26.7 17.3 3.7 NIBIB 2,969 0.9 18.3 1.2 7.8 9.7 6.1 NIA 2,433 0.9 11.5 2.2 23.6 16.4 4.8 NIAMS 2,464 1.4 16.3 2.5 15.2 7.5 3.6 NIMH 2,675 1.4 8.3 2.8 28.2 19.2 5.2 NEI 1,822 0.7 18.9 2.6 14.9 11.3 4.3 NIEHS 1,669 0.8 16.9 2.8 18.6 11.2 7.1 NIDA 1,721 2.5 5.1 3.2 33.2 25.6 5.5 NIDCR 1,164 0.9 13.8 2.4 13.6 11.4 5.2 NIDCD 917 0.3 7.8 2.7 18.3 14.4 4.6
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NHGRI 843 0.3 15.8 1.1 9.8 4.8 3.8 NINR 511 1.9 9.0 1.6 31.4 20.6 5.8 NCCIH 592 4.5 21.6 1.4 21.6 15.9 5.9 NIAAA 762 3.0 14.3 1.4 25.1 15.5 6.3 NLM 566 0.8 19.4 1.5 12.4 13.2 8.7 NIMHD 243 11.2 18.5 4.2 29.4 28.9 32.4 Average 1.1 16.0 2.0 17.4 10.8 4.5 NOTE: IC = institute/center; PI = principal investigator. SOURCE: Application data provided by NIH.
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TABLE 4-7 NIH SBIR/STTR Programs: Differences across ICs in Application Shares from Underrepresented 124 Groups 2012–2019 Percentage of Applications Owner is from a IC (in order of Socially or decreasing PI is PI is Economically SBIR/STTR Number of African PI is Hispanic PI is a Owner is Disadvantaged program size) Applications American Asian or Latine Woman a Woman Group NCI 10,046 1.1 20.5 2.1 15.3 12.0 3.3 NIAID 7,693 1.1 15.3 2.9 17.5 9.9 2.6 NHLBI 6,226 1.2 16.1 3.5 13.6 11.4 3.5 NIGMS 4,596 0.7 20.3 2.9 12.4 9.2 3.6 NIDDK 4,265 1.5 16.5 2.9 15.5 11.0 4.5 NINDS 3,506 0.7 16.1 2.6 12.7 10.5 2.9 NICHD 3,037 1.7 14.0 2.2 23.4 21.0 4.3 NIBIB 2,317 1.5 18.1 3.4 9.1 11.7 4.6 NIA 3,040 1.1 15.5 2.6 18.3 16.3 4.6 NIAMS 2,031 0.8 16.4 1.5 14.3 12.1 3.0 NIMH 1,764 1.7 10.2 1.8 25.0 21.1 4.1 NEI 1,656 1.1 17.1 2.7 11.1 14.8 5.8 NIEHS 1,312 0.9 17.8 4.1 14.9 15.6 4.8 NIDA 1,421 3.2 13.0 2.0 23.6 21.9 5.1 NIDCR 805 0.9 19.2 1.8 14.5 13.2 3.3
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NIDCD 657 0.8 9.3 5.3 21.3 14.6 2.2 NHGRI 665 0.3 17.9 3.8 12.2 7.0 3.4 NINR 662 2.3 8.9 0.6 21.4 20.7 9.3 NCCIH 475 2.1 18.1 4.4 19.8 16.4 6.1 NIAAA 503 2.3 12.9 2.6 27.9 19.5 5.7 NLM 215 0.4 9.3 1.5 16.2 14.9 4.5 NIMHD 660 10.4 11.2 9.5 31.4 31.0 23.9 NCATS 749 0.6 17.4 1.6 18.8 18.1 4.9 ORIP 499 3.1 15.9 3.3 16.2 15.9 8.0 Average 1.3 16.7 2.8 16.2 13.2 4.0 NOTE: IC = institute/center; PI = principal investigator. SOURCE: Application data provided by NIH.
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From page 126... ...
The overall conversion rate fluctuated over the sample period but was lower from 2008 to 2019 than between 2001 and 2007 (Joshi et al., 2018)
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From page 127... ...
These conversion rates reinforce the general picture of the SBIR/STTR programs becoming more competitive over time. Distribution of Phase I and Phase II Awards across SBIR versus STTR Over the sample period, the relative proportions of NIH SBIR and STTR awards changed.
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While conversations with IC TABLE 4-10 Allocation of Phase I and II Awards across NIH SBIR versus STTR Programs Number of Awards Fiscal Year SBIR Phase I STTR Phase I SBIR Phase II STTR Phase II 2001 901 97 719 56 2002 949 90 844 62 2003 1,075 99 848 56 2004 1,087 234 852 82 2005 908 179 802 99 2006 775 166 844 95 2007 752 144 839 105 2008 848 135 831 114 2009 843 149 880 143 2010 824 131 801 121 2011 662 94 717 95 2012 795 137 669 107 2013 647 157 638 95 2014 780 195 679 93 2015 647 183 751 100 2016 634 214 826 114 2017 639 196 921 121 2018 765 245 1,019 130 2019 786 230 1,023 133 SOURCE: Application data provided by NIH.
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across phases by program. SOURCE: Based on data from NIH RePORTER.
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Detail on the distribution of applications for these special award types is somewhat limited for two reasons: the small number of total applications and awards, particularly for Phase IIB and Direct-to-Phase II; and the inability to distinguish failed Fast-Track applications from failed Direct-to-Phase II applications in the raw application data the committee received from NIH.21 NIH does provide public access to detailed aggregate statistics on each of the three special award types from 2011 on. An excerpt from those statistics is shown in Table 4-11.
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2011 451 46 10.20 10,873,804 2012 390 68 17.40 16,826,434 2013 355 61 17.20 16,523,514 2014 388 76 19.60 18,137,053 2015 398 76 19.10 20,329,454 2016 748 230 30.70 175,818,239 2017 624 116 18.60 37,755,632 2018 860 175 20.30 51,187,737 2019 772 178 23.10 61,098,527 2020 743 128 17.20 52,267,233 Total 5,729 1,154 - 460,817,627 Direct-to-Phase II Number of Number of Success Fiscal Applications Applications Rate Total Funding (dollars) Year Reviewed Awarded (percent)
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2011 N/A N/A N/A N/A 2012 N/A N/A N/A N/A 2013 N/A N/A N/A N/A 2014 N/A N/A N/A N/A 2015 34 13 38.24 11,708,214 2016 497 84 16.90 74,799,524 2017 53 21 39.62 18,813,316 2018 88 33 37.50 37,019,207 2019 97 42 43.30 46,087,199 2020 106 39 36.79 41,707,283 Total 875 232 - 230,134,743 SOURCE: NIH RePORTER, Table 215: NIH Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Grants: Competing Applications, Awards, Success Rates and Total Funding by Phase Made with Direct Budget Authority Funds, FY 20112020. of total annual applications increased by 62.6 percent (with individual spikes of 80.4 percent in 2010 and 98.7 percent in 2016 relative to 2001 levels)
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From page 133... ...
Rate (percent) 2001 4,634 38 38 38 2002 5,170 38 37 43 2003 6,458 32 32 33 2004 7,942 28 27 40 2005 7,298 27 27 31 2006 6,611 28 29 24 2007 5,804 32 35 20 2008 5,560 35 37 24 2009 6,026 33 34 32 2010 8,359 22 22 30 2011 7,677 20 20 24 2012 6,960 25 24 31 2013 6,423 24 23 29 2014 6,490 27 27 26 2015 6,872 24 25 23 2016 9,210 20 20 17 2017 7,633 25 26 22 2018 7,676 29 29 26 2019 7,536 29 30 26 Total 130,339 27.5 27.8 27.9 SOURCE: Application data provided by NIH.
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From page 134... ...
Using application data makes it possible to compare firms that did and did not have at least one successful application in their first year as an NIH SBIR/STTR applicant. The committee found that over the sample period, not only did first-year applicants that received awards perform better in terms of total award volume over time, but they also experienced less time between awards (see Table 4-13)
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From page 135... ...
This gradual decoupling of SBIR/STTR activity from overall research activity provides evidence of increased use of the SBIR/STTR programs in areas not traditionally associated with large amounts of research funding. Montana, for instance, is a growing SBIR/STTR powerhouse, with high application success rates and a relatively large ratio of SBIR/STTR awards to overall R01 awards.
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FIGURE 4-3 Geographic distribution of SBIR/STTR allocations before and after 2011 reauthorization. SOURCE: Based on applicant data provided by NIH and R01 data from NIH RePORTER.
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This section provides a descriptive overview and summary statistics regarding the demographic composition of participating research institutions and the geographic distance separating them from their partnering awardee firms. The committee found low rates of program participation by various types of minorityserving institutions (MSIs)
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From page 138... ...
As shown in Table 4-14, MSIs had extremely low levels of participation as R&D partners for NIH STTR awardees during the sample period, and there appears to have been little discernible improvement in the overall participation rates across five major institution types: historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) ; predominately Black institutions; Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs)
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From page 139... ...
In terms of available NIH resources for technical support, the average distance to the nearest NIH proof of concept center (POC) across all STTR awardees is 252 miles, to the nearest NIH Center for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI)
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Thus, firms whose owners are members of underrepresented or socioeconomically disadvantaged groups may have access to other relevant resources that are much closer relative to their R&D partners in the STTR program. MISSING PATENT DATA In addition to missing demographic data that could be improved by linking NIH's application records to the SAM database, as discussed above, the committee found that the patent data in the RePORTER database could be improved by checking the reported data against and linking them with other government databases.
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From page 141... ...
It could also reflect strategy: firms expecting to return to the program for funding may be more likely to be diligent in their reporting. Of interest, STTR awardees were much more likely than SBIR awardees to report their patents (41 percent versus 28 percent)
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From page 142... ...
Additional funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 did not improve the success rates of female principal investigators, and the proportion of women and minorities among SBIR/STTR applicants is no greater in larger than in smaller NIH ICs. Finding 4-3: Minority-serving institutions -- including historically Black colleges and universities; predominately Black institutions; Hispanic serving institutions; Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander–serving institutions; and tribal colleges and universities -- have extremely low levels of participation as research partners for NIH STTR awarded firms.
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From page 143... ...
Recommendation 4-1: NIH SBIR/STTR program managers should improve outreach to minority-serving institutions. For example, the Center for Scientific Review and the individual ICs should increase the diversity of their reviewer pools for the SBIR/STTR programs by drawing on faculty or advanced degree recipients from such institutions, which could also help broaden the diversity of the programs' applicant pools.
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