sbir

The Obama administration recently announced two directives to accelerate the commercialization of research and provide small businesses with streamlined access to federal resources. In his announcement, President Obama tied the directives to his administration's recent jobs push, and noted the need to bypass Congress in order to quickly implement the changes.

Compiling SBIR Phase I awards and proposal statistics by state for FY10, SSTI finds the 10 states with the most awards in FY10 were California (851), Massachusetts (517), Virginia (250), Colorado (218), New York (212), Maryland (196), Texas (185), Pennsylvania (184), Ohio (179), and Michigan (125). Colorado moved up two positions to fourth place, dropping New York to fifth place while Maryland fell to sixth place from fifth last year. Pennsylvania edged out Ohio to move up one spot into eighth position, pushing Ohio down one spot from last year to ninth place.

Editor's Note: Last week, the Digest erroneously reported that Congress had approved the extension of SBIR/STTR. This mistake was due to the substitution described in the article below. The actual SBIR extension was approved on May 31, 2011. We regret the error.

For the 11th time in the last 32-months, Congress approved a continuing resolution to extend authorization of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. The House version of the Small Business Additional Temporary Extension Act of 2011 (S.990) would extend small business programs "as is" through the end of Fiscal Year 2011. The Senate version would extend the program through May 31, 2012.

Created as the successor to two longstanding and accomplished tech-based economic development organizations — the Washington Technology Center (WTC) and the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute (SIRTI) — Innovate Washington will serve as the state's primary agency responding to tech transfer needs and strengthening university-industry partnerships. Innovate Washington also will coordinate the state's clean energy initiatives.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program reauthorizations may face a bleak future due to a recent vote on the Senate floor. Senator Mary L. Landrieu (D-LA) said, "Today was our last chance to reauthorize these important programs and provide some continuity to the small businesses that depend on them.

Using figures provided by the 12 participating federal agencies of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, SSTI has prepared a table showing FY09 Phase II award data for all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Statistics include award data and state rankings based on total awards. SSTI finds the top 10 states receiving Phase II SBIR awards in FY09 are: California (423), Massachusetts (291), New York (138), Virginia (128), Colorado (115), Maryland (112), Texas (87), Ohio (77), Pennsylvania (72), and New Jersey (66).

With the Senate in recess, debate over SBIR/STTR reauthorization has been temporarily put on hold for the week. The reauthorization act has landed at the center of a larger congressional debate over federal spending, due to the more than 80 amendments that have been submitted for consideration. Most of these amendments propose spending cuts unrelated to SBIR. The main text of the bill would extend the SBIR and STTR programs through 2019 and increase award levels for Phase I and Phase II awards.

Lawmakers approved many of Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposals aimed at growing Virginia's technology and life sciences industries by dedicating about half of the funding requested by the governor to support R&D, commercialization, SBIR matching grants, and funding for early stage equity investments.

The Department of Defense (DoD) lacks complete data on the number of technologies commercialized and therefore cannot determine the return on its space-related SBIR investment, finds a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). To meet space-related technology needs, DoD invested $5 billion, or approximately 11 percent of its total SBIR budget, on space-related Phase I and Phase II contracts over fiscal years 2005-09.