An Assessment of the SBIR Program at the Department of Energy (2008) / Chapter Skim
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2 Findings and Recommendations
2 Findings and Recommendations
Pages 25-41
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From page 25... ...
Congress expanded the purposes to "emphasize the program's goal of increasing private sector commercialization developed through Federal research and development and to improve the Federal government's dissemination of information concerning small business innovation, particularly with regard to woman-owned business concerns and by socially and economically disadvantaged small business concerns." 25
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From page 26... ...
See NRC Phase II Survey, Question 4b. As with investments by angel investors or venture capitalists, SBIR awards result in highly con centrated sales, with a few awards accounting for a very large share of the overall sales generated by the program. These are appropriate referent groups, though not an appropriate group for direct comparison, not least because SBIR awards often occur earlier in the technology development cycle than where venture funds normally invest. Nonetheless, returns on venture funding tend to show the same high skew that characterizes commercial returns on the SBIR awards.
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From page 27... ...
Of the DoE SBIR award recipient firms that responded to the NRC Phase II Survey and reported sales of some type, 76 percent sold to domestic private sector firms and 14 percent to export markets. v. Limits on potential for broader commercialization.
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From page 28... ...
All DoE awards appear to be selected primarily on the basis of their potential to advance knowledge and provide solutions in the field of energy. There is no evidence that DoE awards are made in fields outside those linked to the department's mission.13 12Interviews with DoE SBIR staff.
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From page 29... ...
Awardees and DoE staff note that impact effects are an important component in every application. In all the cases examined, DoE SBIR funded projects related to the science and technology of energy.
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SBIR awards can help build a company's technology base, allowing the company to pursue 15Case studies of NanoSonic and Thunderhead Engineering, and Diversified Technologies, Inc. 16DoE SBIR program data prepared for the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, Com mittee on Science and Technology, U.S.
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From page 31... ...
Enhance credibility with private-sector firms. SBIR awards can provide a "stamp of approval," allowing smaller companies to better access large private sector companies, including government con tractors, and attract private investors.
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23 F Understanding firms winning multiple awards.
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The NRC survey also sug gests that SBIR awards are supporting the transfer of knowledge, firm creation, and partnerships between universities and the private sector:28 25As a point of comparison, Xerox Technologies Ventures, the famed venture capital arm of Xerox Corporation, generated 35 spin-off firms over a comparable time period. 26See NRC Phase II Survey, Question 18.
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From page 34... ...
Just under two thirds (62 percent) of DoE project managers reported more fund able projects than were funded.30 Success rates for SBIR Phase I competitions are consistently below 20 percent.
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From page 35... ...
ii. DoE SBIR staff devote nearly all their time to managing the pro cesses for generating technical topics, and for receiving, evaluat ing, and selecting grant applications.
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While the DoE SBIR staff maintain a detailed database of commercialization outcomes reported by funded firms, they do not as yet have the resources to validate the reported data or employ them in formal program evalu ation. Evaluation of the effectiveness of commercialization programs has also been lacking.
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From page 37... ...
This disparity occurs because DoE allocates SBIR awards back to individual programs based upon a running average of the amount of SBIR funds contributed by that program, rather than only on proposal quality.
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Develop procedures to track the relationship between National Laboratories and the SBIR program more formally, including the documentation of Phase III successes. E. Increase the participation and success rates of woman- and minority owned firms in the SBIR program.
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"Underrepresentation of female academic staff in science research is the dominant (but not the only) factor to explain low entrepreneurial rates amongst female scientists." See Peter Rosa and Alison Dawson, "Gender and the commercialization of university science: academic founders of spinout companies," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 18(4)
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From page 40... ...
1. Augmenting the role of the current DoE SBIR Oversight Committee, the purpose of such an advisory board is to provide a regular monitor ing and feedback mechanism that would address the need for upper management attention, and encourage internal evaluation and regular assessment of progress towards definable metrics.
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From page 41... ...
or perhaps the National Science Foundation's Advisory Board.38 In any case, it should include senior agency staff and the Director's Office on an ex officio basis, and bring together, inter alia, representatives from industry (including award recipients) , academics, and other experts in program management.
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