Assessment of the SBIR and STTR Programs at the National Institutes of Health (2022) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 19-32
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From page 19... ...
The focus and purpose of the program, at least as articulated by Congress, have changed over time. The 1982 act creating the program stated that its purposes were to stimulate technological innovation, to use small business to meet federal research and development needs, to foster and encourage participation in technological innovation by minority and disadvantaged persons, and to increase private-sector commercialization innovations derived from federal research and development (R&D)
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From page 20... ...
2019 National Defense Authorization Act extended some pilot programs through FY 2022 and added additional commercialization assistance. The latest program reauthorization took place in 2016 as part of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. 3 At the outset, the legislation governing the SBIR program called for participation by any federal agency with extramural research or R&D budgets in excess of $100,000,000.
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. The SBIR program has been the subject of numerous academic reviews, several studies by the Government Accountability Office, and previous assessments by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, some of which also reviewed the STTR program.
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. Among the laws passed, the Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982 created the SBIR program (U.S.
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Further, technical innovations have been shown to be most successful when coupled with market opportunities (Arthur, 2007) , a finding that provides strong justification for the SBIR program's evaluation of innovative proposals that also demonstrate strong prospects for commercial success.
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illustrated the same procurement–commercialization link by pointing to government funding for what became numerous components of Apple's iPhone. CONFLICTING PROGRAMMATIC GOALS The SBIR/STTR programs, and any study of them, face a major challenge in that the various constituent groups in the programs' community espouse different views of the programs' purpose and goals.
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From page 25... ...
This study mandate was expanded in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, wherein Congress directed agencies with SBIR program budgets of more than $50 million to engage with the National Academies to conduct a quadrennial assessment of their SBIR and STTR programs.5 The congressional mandate calls for assessments to study "how the SBIR program has stimulated technological innovation and used small businesses to meet federal research and development needs," and to include several specific analyses and evaluations. The first objective of the study is to assess the value of the R&D conducted under the program and evaluate its quality; the second is to evaluate the economic benefits and compare that against other federal R&D expenditures; and the third is to evaluate noneconomic benefits.
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From page 26... ...
The committee will draw on published research; existing, available data; and case studies, and convene a series of meetings. Specifically and to the extent that data are available, the committee will examine: SBIR effectiveness: Leveraging existing NIH evaluation strategies and data that are made available to the committee, case studies, and other available data, the committee will examine whether the NIH SBIR Program is fulfilling the requirements of the enabling legislation; and study the impact and effectiveness of the enabling strategies NIH has employed to enhance the program, including, but not limited to, technical and business assistance programs and the Phase IIB program.
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From page 27... ...
At the time of this writing, Phase II awards were normally being funded at amounts up to $1,730,751 over 1–3 years.7 6 The SBIR and STTR programs consist of the same phases and dollar amounts, but small businesses receiving STTR awards are required to collaborate formally with a research institution (such as a university or federal laboratory) in Phases I and II.
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See also PHS 2021-2 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH for Small Business Technology Transfer Grant Applications (Parent STTR [R41/R42] Clinical Trial Required)
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At NIH, the omnibus solicitations are open to any topics of interest to applicants, whereas at some federal agencies, funding solicitations are accompanied by a list of topics developed to reflect agency priorities. In view of the program goal to "foster and encourage participation in innovation and entrepreneurship by women and socially or economically disadvantaged persons" (SBA, n.d.)
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From page 30... ...
In addition to these solicitations, the 24 ICs within NIH that operate SBIR and STTR programs may release targeted funding opportunities, with their own due dates and sometimes with separate dedicated funding, for topics of special interest to them. As discussed in Chapter 3, in many ways the SBIR and STTR programs at NIH operate as a collection of smaller programs varying in size from very small to very large.
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From page 31... ...
Finally, Chapter 5 focuses on innovation and health-related outcomes from SBIR and STTR awards. The body of the report is followed by a list of references, agendas for meetings of the committee, biographies of committee members, and a technical appendix.
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