An Assessment of the SBIR Program at the Department of Energy (2008) / Chapter Skim
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5 Agency Mission
5 Agency Mission
Pages 72-79
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From page 72... ...
DoE's overarching mission is "to advance the national, economic, and energy security of the United States; to promote scientific and technological innovation in support of that mission; and to ensure the environmental cleanup of the national nuclear weapons complex." The Department has four strategic goals toward achieving this mission: • Defense Strategic Goal: To protect our national security by applying advanced science and nuclear technology to the nation's defense. Department of Energy main Web site under "about us." Accessed at |
From page 73... ...
He concluded that the view at DoE (based on the agency's interpretation of the enabling legislation) is that commercialization will follow because it is in the best interest of the performers -- the small businesses themselves. Throughout the history of the SBIR Program at DoE, the SBIR Office has promulgated a set of evaluation criteria that reflects this upper management Milton Johnson, "SBIR at the Department of Energy: Achievements, Opportunities, and Challenges," in National Research Council, SBIR: Program Diversity and Assessment Challenges, Charles W
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From page 74... ...
The conceptual tension that exists between the two primary goals of the SBIR -- to involve small firms in agency R&D and to fund projects with commercial potential -- has resulted in a program that has earned increasing respect from program managers within DoE, and yet continues to receive relatively low levels of intraagency resources for administration. 5.2.1 Research vs.
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From page 75... ...
program manager sees his needs are met, then he sees he can get value out of the program." In this context, DeBlanc viewed an ultimate test of the program to be the willingness of at least some program managers to volunteer funds to SBIR in additional to the mandated set-aside. 5.3.1 Supporting Program Missions Interviews with several Technical Program Managers and Technical Topic Managers, who are not part of the SBIR program office staff, confirm that support for the SBIR program has grown within DoE: There was clear consensus among these managers that the SBIR research funded by their programs has supported program missions, provided useful outcomes, and strengthened the role of small firms in those missions.
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From page 76... ...
The limited impact here may be related to the fact that, unlike DoD and NASA, DoE does not procure technology for its own use; therefore, the impact of the research may be harder to identify. Of the 42 project managers who reported that SBIR-funded research had affected the manner in which their office had conducted research or pursued other research projects, about half encouraged the project performer to seek additional SBIR awards; more than half tried to follow up on project ideas in other research conducted or sponsored by the project manager's office; some of these further efforts led to a blind alley. These internal findings are supported by an external review as well.
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From page 77... ...
Overall, project managers indicated that nearly 60 percent of DoE SBIR projects showed a commercial or intrinsic use or both. At DoE, only a few projects were identified as receiving Phase III funding from the agency (13 percent)
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From page 78... ...
also employs SBIR for instrumentation development, frequently soliciting proposals in this area and adopting new measurement tools and methods developed by SBIR participants. DoE technical staff capitalizes on program flexibility in other ways that seek to make the most of complementarities between research programs.
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From page 79... ...
TABLE 5-1 2005 SBIR/STTR Award Rates Number Award Number Number of of Phase I Rate Program Area of Topics Applications Awards (%) Fossil energy 7 247 29 12 Advanced scientific computing research 3 47 9 19 Basic energy sciences 9 247 56 23 Biological and environmental research 6 182 47 26 Environmental management 0 0 0 0 Nuclear physics 4 47 25 53 High energy physics 5 111 46 41 Fusion energy sciences 3 80 18 23 Nuclear energy 1 11 3 27 Energy efficiency and renewable energy 6 470 38 8 Nonproliferation and national security 3 61 11 18 Electric transmission and distribution 2 48 8 17 TOTALS 49 1,551 290 19 SOURCE: Department of Energy SBIR program Web site.
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