Defense Restores SBIR Funds...and other SBIR News

Defense Concedes: Will Honor 2.5% Set Aside

Mid-April letters from the Department of Defense to Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO), respectively chair and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, marked the end of a four-month standoff and a $75 million win for small tech firms across the country. At issue was whether an eleventh-hour insertion in the 2002 Defense Appropriations, which effectively halved the SBIR obligation of the Missile Defense Agency (see the 1/11/02 SSTI Weekly Digest for the original story), also reduced the entire Defense Department's requirement to award 2.5 percent of its extramural R&D to small companies through the SBIR program.



Dov S. Zakheim, Under Secretary for Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer, wrote in the agency's response to a Jan. 29 letter from the two Senators, "We have spent a good deal of time reviewing both the proviso in the 'Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation, Defense-wide' appropriation in Public Law 107-117 and the provisions of the SBIR program (15 U.S.C. 638(f)). As a result, I can assure you that the Department intends to comply with the provisions of the SBIR statute."



What is not disclosed in the letter and will require further investigation by the Small Business Administration or Congress, however, is how the Department will meet the $75 million obligation. The most likely scenario is assessing the full amount from the Missile Defense Agency, as would have been required before the rescission. Other options include distributing some or all of the burden across other Defense components.



...and other SBIR News



NSF Matching SBIR Phase II Grantees to VC

The National Science Foundation has launched NSF SBIR Matchmaker, an effort to connect interested NSF SBIR Phase II grant recipients to strategic investment partners for early stage capital. The goal is to increase the likelihood of commercialization of successful technologies resulting from NSF SBIR research.



Prospective investment organizations and strategic partners must have a focus in one or more of the four technology focus areas: electronics, biotech, information technology, or advanced materials and manufacturing. SBIR Phase II grantees must meet several criteria for inclusion in the program.



More information is available at: http://www.eng.nsf.gov/sbir/matchmaker.htm

States' Meeting Scheduled for June Nat'l Conference

The Office of Technology within the Small Business Administration is organizing a State/Federal Partnership Workshop for current grantees and prospective applicants to the two SBA programs that support state and local SBIR outreach and commercialization assistance: the Federal and State Technology Partnership and the Rural Outreach Program. The invitation-only meeting will be held in Washington D.C. from 1-5 p.m. on June 13, in conjunction with the National SBIR Conference. The draft agenda includes a number of items:

• Update on the FY 2002 FAST competition, including a briefing from SBA Grants Management and General Counsel staff
• Update on the FY 2003 SBIR Rural Outreach Program competition
• Highlights of Grantee Performance/Financial reports
• FAST/ROP Committee Status Reports
• FAST/ROP State Reports and “Top Five Lists” of the needs of small high technology firms within the state

In extending the invitations, Maurice Swinton, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Technology, pointed out 

"the meeting provides the only opportunity to speak with the federal partners before the close of the upcoming FY02 FAST and FY03 SBIR Rural Outreach competitions."

Organizations eligible to participate in the FAST and ROP solicitations and interested in attending should contact Mr. Swinton at (202) 205-6450 or maurice.swinton@sba.gov.