STTR An Assessment of the |
Committee on Capitalizing on Science, Technology, and Innovation:
An Assessment of the Small Business Innovation Research Program—Phase II
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy
Policy and Global Affairs
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMI-0221736; by NASA under award No. NNX07AJ53G; by the National Institutes of Health under contract number HHSN263201200074I, Task Order HHSN26300029; by the Department of Energy under award number DE-PI0000010/DE-DT0006163; and by the Department of Defense under contract/order number HQ0034-10-D-0003-0001.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-37961-8
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-37961-X
DOI: 10.17226/21826
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Copyright 2016 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. STTR: An Assessment of the Small Business Technology Transfer Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Committee on Capitalizing on Science, Technology,
and Innovation: An Assessment of the Small Business Innovation
Research Program—Phase II
Jacques S. Gansler (NAE), Chair
Roger C. Lipitz Chair in Public Policy and Private Enterprise
Director of the Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise
School of Public Policy
University of Maryland
David Audretsch
Distinguished Professor
Ameritech Chair of Economic Development
Director of the Institute for Development Strategies
Indiana University
Gene Banucci
Executive Chairman, ret.
ATMI, Inc.
(Member: 6/26/2009-4/23/2014)
Thomas J. Bond
Grant and Proposal Director
Association for Manufacturing Technology
(Member: 6/26/2009-5/21/2014)
Michael Borrus
Founding General Partner
XSeed Capital
J. Michael Brick
Vice President and Co-Director of Survey Methods
Westat
Gail H. Cassell (NAM)
Senior Lecturer
Department of Global Health and Social Medicine
Harvard Medical School
M. Christina Gabriel
President
University Energy Partnership
Charles E. Kolb (NAE)
President and Chief Executive Officer
Aerodyne Research, Inc.
Virginia Lesser
Professor of Statistics
Department of Statistics
Director, Survey Research Center
Oregon State University
Henry Linsert, Jr.
Chairman and CEO
Columbia Biosciences Corporation
W. Clark McFadden II
Senior Counsel
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP
Duncan T. Moore (NAE)
Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship
Rudolf and Hilda Kingslake Professor of Optical Engineering
The Institute of Optics
University of Rochester
Linda Powers
Managing Director
Toucan Capital Corporation
(Member: 6/26/2009-10/13/2011)
Donald Siegel
Dean and Professor
School of Business
University at Albany, SUNY
Jeffrey E. Sohl
Professor and Director of the Center for Venture Research
Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics
University of New Hampshire
Tyrone C. Taylor
President
Capitol Advisors on Technology, LLC
John P. Walsh
Professor of Public Policy
School of Public Policy
Georgia Institute of Technology
Patrick H. Windham
Principal
Technology Policy International
Project Staff
Sujai J. Shivakumar
Study Director
David E. Dierksheide
Program Officer
Karolina E. Konarzewska
Program Coordinator
(through September 2015)
Gail E. Cohen
Board Director
Frederic A. Lestina
Senior Program Assistant
Natacha R. Montgomery
Senior Program Assistant
(through October 2015)
For the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, this project was overseen by the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP), a standing board established in 1991. The mandate of the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy is to advise federal, state, and local governments and inform the public about economic and related public policies to promote the creation, diffusion, and application of new scientific and technical knowledge to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the U.S. economy and foster economic prosperity for all Americans. The STEP Board and its committees marshal research and the expertise of scholars, industrial managers, investors, and former public officials in a wide range of policy areas that affect the speed and direction of scientific and technological change and their contributions to the growth of the U.S. and global economies. Results are communicated through reports, conferences, workshops, briefings, and electronic media subject to the procedures of the Academies to ensure their authoritativeness, independence, and objectivity. The members and staff of the STEP Board* are listed below:
Richard K. Lester, Chair
Japan Steel Industry Professor and Department Head
Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jeff Bingaman
Former U.S. Senator, New Mexico
U.S. Senate
Ellen R. Dulberger
Managing Partner
Dulberger Enterprises, LLC
Alan M. Garber (NAM)
Provost
Harvard University
Ralph E. Gomory (NAS/NAE)
Research Professor
IOMS Department
Stern School of Business
New York University
Michael Greenstone
The Milton Friedman Professor of Economics and the College
Director, Energy Policy Institute at Chicago
Department of Economics
The University of Chicago
John L. Hennessy (NAS/NAE)
President
Stanford University
David T. Morgenthaler
Founder
Morgenthaler Ventures
Luis M. Proenza
President Emeritus
University of Akron
Kathryn L. Shaw
Ernest C. Arbuckle Professor of Economics
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford University
* As of December 2015.
Laura D’Andrea Tyson
Professor of Business Administration & Economics
Director, Institute for Business & Social Impact
Haas Business & Public Policy Group
University of California, Berkeley
Jay Walker
Chairman
Patent Properties, Inc.
STEP Staff
Gail E. Cohen
Director
Paul T. Beaton
Senior Program Officer
Aqila A. Coulthurst
Associate Program Officer
David E. Dierksheide
Program Officer
Frederic A. Lestina
Senior Program Assistant
Natacha R. Montgomery
Senior Program Assistant
(thorough October 2015)
Sujai J. Shivakumar
Senior Program Officer
Preface
Today’s knowledge economy is driven in large part by the nation’s capacity to innovate. One of the defining features of the U.S. economy is a high level of entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurs in the United States see opportunities and are willing and able to assume risk to bring new welfare-enhancing, wealth-generating technologies to the market. Yet, although discoveries in areas such as genomics, bioinformatics, and nanotechnology present new opportunities, converting these discoveries into innovations for the market involves substantial challenges.1 The American capacity for innovation can be strengthened by addressing the challenges faced by entrepreneurs. Public-private partnerships are one means to help entrepreneurs bring new ideas to market.
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program together form one of the largest examples of U.S. public-private partnerships. An underlying tenet of these programs is that small businesses are a strong source of new ideas, and therefore economic growth, but that it is difficult to find financial support for these ideas in the early stages of their development. The SBIR program was established in 1982 to encourage small businesses to develop new processes and products and to provide quality research in support of the U.S. government’s many missions. By involving qualified small businesses in the nation’s research and development (R&D) effort, SBIR awards stimulate innovative technologies to help federal agencies meet their specific R&D needs in many areas, including health, the environment, and national defense. The STTR program was created in 1992 by the Small Business Research and Development Enhancement Act to expand joint venture opportunities for small businesses and nonprofit research institutions by requiring small business recipients to collaborate formally with a research institution.
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1See L. M. Branscomb, K. P. Morse, M. J. Roberts, D. Boville, Managing Technical Risk: Understanding Private Sector Decision Making on Early Stage Technology Based Projects, Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2000.
In the SBIR Reauthorization Act of 2000, Congress tasked the National Research Council (NRC)2 with undertaking a “comprehensive study of how the SBIR program has stimulated technological innovation and used small businesses to meet federal research and development needs” and with recommending further improvements to the program.3 In the first round of this study, an expert committee prepared a series of reports from 2004 to 2009 on the SBIR program at the Department of Defense (DoD), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Department of Energy (DoE), and National Science Foundation (NSF)—the five agencies responsible for 96 percent of the program’s operations.4 When reauthorizing the SBIR and STTR programs in 2011, Congress expanded the study mandate to include a review of the STTR program.5
Building on the methodology and outcomes from the previous review of SBIR, this assessment is a part of a series of reports that examines topics of general policy interest that emerged during the first round as well as topics of specific interest to individual agencies administering SBIR and STTR. In addition to this report, which reviews the STTR program across the five agencies identified above, the results of the assessment will be published in reports of agency-specific and program-wide findings on the SBIR and STTR programs to be submitted to the contracting agencies and Congress. In partial fulfillment of these objectives, this volume presents the committee’s review of the STTR program.6
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
On behalf of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, we express our appreciation for and recognition of the valuable insights and close cooperation extended by agency staff, the survey respondents, and case study interviewees, among others. The committee gives particular thanks to its lead researcher, Robin Gaster of Innovation Competitions LLC, and to Peter Grunwald of Grunwald Associates LLC, which conducted the surveys and described the results presented in this volume. Rosalie Ruegg of TIA Consulting provided valuable assistance in revising the draft report in light of comments received from reviewers. The presentation of the report has also been enhanced by the diligent copyediting of Nancy Tuvesson. David Dierksheide of
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2Effective July 1, 2015, the institution is called the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. References in this report to the National Research Council are used in an historic context identifying programs prior to July 1.
3See the SBIR Reauthorization Act of 2000 (H.R. 5667, Section 108).
4For the overview report, see National Research Council, An Assessment of the SBIR Program, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2008. See also National Research Council, An Assessment of the SBIR Program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2009. The committee also prepared reports on the SBIR program at DoD, DoE, NIH, and NSF.
5SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011, P.L. 112-81, December 31, 2011.
6The formal Statement of Task is presented in Chapter 1 of this report.
the staff of the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy is especially recognized for his dedication and important contributions to the operation of this study and the preparation of this report.
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.
We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report: Wendy Baldwin, Population Reference Bureau; Robert Barnhill, Arizona State University; Glenn Firebaugh, Pennsylvania State University; Kenneth Gall, Duke University; Terry Grimm, Niowave, Inc.; Karl Koster, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Jane Muir, University of Florida; Philip Neches, Teradata Corporation; Richard Nelson, Columbia University; Phillip Phan, Johns Hopkins University; Carl Ray, NASA (Retired); Marcia Rieke, University of Arizona; John Younger, University of Michigan; and Lorel Wisniewski, Independent Consultant.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Edwin Przybylowicz, Eastman Kodak Company (retired) and Irwin Feller, Pennsylvania State University. Appointed by the Academies, they were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Jacques S. Gansler | Sujai J. Shivakumar |
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Contents
4. Qualitative Assessment: Company and University Perspectives
6. Findings and Recommendations
A. Overview of Methodological Approaches, Data Sources, and Survey Tools
C. National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2014 SBIR/STTR Survey
D. List of Research Institutions Reported by STTR Survey Respondents