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In the January 10, 1997 Issue:

NASA Announces SBIR Phase I Awards

NASA selected 349 research proposals for negotiation of Phase I contracts under its 1996 Small Business Innovation Research Program. The 349 awards were selected from 2,367 proposals, an acceptance rate of just under 15 percent.

The combined award total for the Phase I contracts is expected to be about $24 million. The 254 selected firms will be awarded fixed-price contracts up to $70,000 to perform a six month feasibility study. Companies which successfully complete the Phase I projects are eligible to compete for Phase II selection the following year. The Phase II award allows for a two-year project up to $600,000.

A listing of companies selected can be found at NASA's home page at http://nctn hq.nasa.gov/nctn/SBIR/SBIR.html or by contacting SSTI at 614/421-SSTI (7784).

Awards were made to companies in 34 states. The distribution of awards by states follows:

Rank State # of

Awards

# of

Firms

1 CA 75 57
2 MA 56 29
3 MD 19 15
3 VA 19 17
5 CO 15 15
5 TX 15 11
7 AL 14 10
7 NY 14 12
7 WA 14 12
10 OH 10 10
10 OR 10 4
12 CT 9 5
Rank State # of Awards # of

Firms

12 PA 9 8
14 AZ 8 3
15 NH 7 3
16 FL 6 6
16 IL 6 4
18 NJ 5 3
21 GA 4 4
21 WI 4 2
23 MI 3 3
23 MN 3 2
25 DE 2 2
25 IN 2 1
25 UT 2 2
25 VT 2 1
29 ID 1 1
29 MS 1 1
29 MT 1 1
29 NC 1 1
29 ND 1 1
29 NV 1 1
    349 254

U.S. Helping Sponsor Business Execs and Scientists from NIS

U.S. companies may receive federal funding of approximately $7,500 to help defray the cost of internships for business executives and scientists from the Newly Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union. The Special American Business Internship Training (SABIT) Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration to assist the former Soviet Union's transition to a market economy.

SABIT matches business executives and scientists from the NIS (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazahkstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan) with U.S. firms which provide them with three to six months of hands-on training.

Companies are expected to provide the interns with a hands-on, non-academic, executive training program designed to maximize their exposure to management or commercially-oriented scientific operations. At the end of the training program, interns must return to the NIS. Since the program was created in 1990, SABIT has helped fund approximately 1,000 internships.

The closing date for applications is March 31, 1997, with applications considered on a rolling basis. Applications can be requested by contacting the International Trade Administration at 202/482-0073. A full description of the program can be obtained by contacting SSTI at 614/421-SSTI (7784).

USIP Holds Regional Meetings

The National Governors' Association (NGA), the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Technology Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce are holding two more regional meetings to get input from state officials and others on the direction of the U.S. Innovation Partnership (USIP).

USIP is a state/federal effort to leverage science, technology, and engineering resources to achieve new economic growth, high quality jobs, and globally competitive businesses. The meetings will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 13-14, 1997 and in Kansas City, Missouri on January 23-24, 1997.

For more information, contact Tom Unruh at NGA, 202/624-7833 or tunruh@nga.org

Western Europe Increasing Competitiveness in R&D Capacity

During the past decade, the European Union (EU) invested heavily in civilian R&D by building first-class laboratories and expanding higher education in science and engineering. Its efforts, according to the Data Brief for a new National Science Foundation report, Human Resources for Science and Technology: The European Region, are narrowing the lead the U.S. holds in R&D.

For example:

The report also found that over the 17 year period examined in the report, Western and Central European countries nearly doubled their annual production of university degrees in the natural sciences and engineering (NS&E). In 1992, Europe produced almost 300,000 NS&E degrees (including more than 25,000 doctoral degrees), compared to 173,000 degrees (18,000 doctoral degrees) awarded by U.S. institutions. The report points out Europe and the U.S. would have to combine their resources to come close to Asia, which awarded just over 523,000 NS&E degrees in 1992.

Copies of the full report (NSF 96-316) or of the Data Brief are available: by phone 703/ 306-1773, e-mail pubs@nsf.gov or on the World Wide Web <www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/ stats.htm> under "What's New".

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