Assessment of the SBIR and STTR Programs at the National Institutes of Health (2022) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
2 Framework for Evaluating the SBIR/STTR Programs at the National Institutes of Health
2 Framework for Evaluating the SBIR/STTR Programs at the National Institutes of Health
Pages 33-48
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 33... ...
programs promote the translation of scientific findings to technology development in small firms and facilitate the NIH mission to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. As discussed in Chapter 5, the SBIR/STTR programs have funded notable technological advances in new drugs and devices.
|
From page 34... ...
The SBIR/STTR programs represent a step toward translation, and receiving an award is an often-tracked metric of a firm's success and that of various entrepreneurial support organizations. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a framework for understanding the multifaceted nature of the NIH SBIR/STTR programs and the different types of public benefits they provide in advancing the NIH mission and achieving the programs' stated legislative objectives.
|
From page 35... ...
. Many of these companies received significant capital from the still-emerging venture capital sector or the newly introduced public risk capital programs such as the SBIR program.
|
From page 36... ...
Returns on investment in the industry are now similar to returns seen by other industries. Importantly, variation in private funding has been buffered by more stable federal support for life sciences innovation research, including funding directed explicitly to small-firm innovators, many of which are startups, through the SBIR/STTR programs.
|
From page 37... ...
. The life sciences innovation network is highly decentralized and involves multiple linkages between and among institutions, including universities, startup firms, established biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical firms, government, and venture capitalists.
|
From page 38... ...
. Nearly every state in the United States now offers some institutional support for the biotechnology industry, but this support varies with respect to the type and amount of resources allocated, with resources including R&D tax credits, dedicated industry resources centers, and strategic plans.
|
From page 39... ...
The committee evaluated the programs along four key dimensions consistent with their legislative goals or potential sources of value: • stimulating technological innovation, • helping agencies meet federal R&D needs, • serving as an engine for the creation of human capital through both firm growth and a broader and more diverse pool of entrepreneurs, and • promoting commercialization of products and technologies. Stimulating Technological Innovation For NIH, the SBIR/STTR programs stimulate technological innovation and facilitate the commercialization of pathbreaking technologies in myriad ways: generating patents, producing collaborative partnerships that result in technology transfer, broadening the geographic scope of NIH's research activities, and regularly identifying and supporting technological and commercial breakthroughs.
|
From page 40... ...
The results presented in that chapter highlight that direct innovation, measured through innovative awardee outputs, accounts for only one aspect of the public goods rationale for the SBIR/STTR programs. The programs provide additional public benefits attributable to spillover effects that result from those innovations, in that these spillovers generate further innovation in related technology.
|
From page 41... ...
Product-market incentives steer resource allocation to commercial science, but there remains a need for complementary robust bluesky research that will have public health benefits available to all. NIH's SBIR/STTR programs promote a diversity of experimentation that is important to a stream of innovation addressing public health challenges, including in research topics that are in their earliest stages or for which there is no market mechanism to realize a profit.
|
From page 42... ...
Individual scientific research teams compete for scientific recognition; universities compete to attract faculty, students, and resources; and biotechnology firms compete with each other to attract scientists, venture capital, and commercialization partners. Product market competition is oriented primarily around quality and innovation.
|
From page 43... ...
study of noncompetitive state matching programs encourages evaluation of the SBIR/STTR programs within a broader mix of policies and institutions rather than a silo of direct inputs and outputs. They 3 https://www.sbir.gov/node/1308525; https://www.sbir.gov/sbc/23andme-inc.
|
From page 44... ...
found that the SBIR program served as a path to procurement, especially for the Department of Defense. While no studies have specifically analyzed the causal effects of the SBIR/STTR programs on procurement, there is substantial evidence that government procurement in general has produced tremendous commercial applications, prominently including weapon systems (Sherwin and Isenson, 1967)
|
From page 45... ...
The complete lack of experimental research on NIH's SBIR/STTR programs in the nearly 40 years since the inception of the SBIR program suggests a strong need to consider conducting or funding such studies and providing researchers access to data on the performance of applicants. Seminal studies that capitalize on rich administrative data (Wallsten, 2000)
|
From page 46... ...
Program evaluators tend to focus on additional gains from an intervention for marginal firms, with program impacts reported in terms of average effects. However, the economic impacts of the SBIR/STTR programs derive largely from a small subset of firms that achieve outstanding results.
|
From page 47... ...
Rather, these results are part of the SBIR/STTR programs' performance within a complex innovation system. Strong performance in certain areas may mean corresponding deficits in others, and individual firm performance will not capture the full value of return on SBIR/STTR investment given the spillovers and unobservable influences within these systems discussed previously.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.