SSTI Digest

Significant changes to the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program were proposed on July 31, 1998 by Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business, when he introduced Senate Bill S. 2407, the Small Business Programs Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998.

First, S. 2407 proposes to make the SBIR Program permanent. The SBIR program is currently authorized through FY 2000. At that time, the program will either need to be reauthorized or it will cease to exist. This bill would eliminate the need for continued reauthorization by making the SBIR program permanent.

Second, the bill would increase the allocation of funds to the SBIR Program from federal agencies' extramural R&D budgets from 2.5% to 3.5%. This increase would occur over four years beginning in FY 2001.

Before leaving for its August recess, the Senate confirmed Neal Lane to be Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Bill Richardson to be Secretary of Energy.

On July 31, Lane was unanimously confirmed as OSTP Director, taking over the vacancy left when John Gibbons retired. According to the White House press release on Lane's confirmation, "Dr. Lane also serves as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and is responsible for providing the President with advice in all areas of science and technology policy and works to coordinate science, space, and technology policy and programs across the federal government. The Director also co-chairs the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology and serves on the National Science and Technology Council."

Just a reminder that early registration for SSTI's Second Annual Conference, Science and Technology Programs: Catalysts for Economic Growth, are due August 31. The conference will be held September 24 & 25 in Columbus, Ohio. Full details can be found on SSTI's home page at www.ssti.org or by calling SSTI at 614/421-SSTI (7784).

During the month of August, the SSTI Weekly Digest will be published every other week. The Digest will be published August 14 and August 28. It will resume weekly publication September 4.

The most comprehensive source of statistical information on science and engineering issues has been released by the National Science Board. "Science and Engineering Indicators: 1998" is the 13th report in a biennial series.

The 800-page report contains a wealth of information on a variety of topics, including four cross-cutting themes:

• increasing globalization of science, technology, and the economy
• greater emphasis throughout the world on science and engineering education and training
• structural and priority changes in the science and engineering enterprise
• increasing impact of science and technology on our daily lives.

Among the findings reported in Indicators are:

A Washington, D.C.-based think tank has issued a call for the creation of a $250 million fund to be directed to the states for Technology Innovation Challenge Grants. The fund would be used by the states to invest in university- industry and other technology and innovation network programs.

Under the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) proposal, states would be required to match the federal funds at a ratio of at least one-to-one with industry required to match all public funds one-to-one. The net effect would be to leverage the federal money into at least $1 billion in funding.

The proposal is contained in a PPI Policy Briefing, "Innovation, Social Capital, and the New Economy: New Federal Policies to Support Collaborative Research," which asserts that investment in innovation is critical and the federal government must develop a targeted and expanded investment program for R&D of scientific and technological advances.

The Research and Experimentation Tax Credit expired on June 30, and there is concern that it may not be renewed this year. Reports indicate that the most likely vehicle for the tax credit would be a general tax bill, but according to the American Institute of Physics, the chances of a tax bill being agreed to by Congress and signed by President Clinton before the end of the session are considered slim.

The State Science and Technology Institute is sponsoring its second annual conference "Science and Technology Programs: Catalysts for Economic Growth" on September 23 and 24.

The conference will explore best practices, trends, and new developments in technology-based economic development programs.

The conference program includes the following sessions:

NASA announced the award of cooperative agreements to establish new technology business incubators at three NASA Centers: the Goddard Space Flight Center (MD), the Langley Research Center (VA), and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), combined with the Dryden Flight Research Center, (CA).

The incubators will provide U.S. start-up or small existing technology firms and U.S. educational institutions with a wide array of critical business development support services for the primary purpose of commercially applying NASA technology.

Each new business incubator will receive funding from NASA in the amount of $400,000 per year for fiscal years 1998 and 1999, and will in turn match (or exceed) NASA's contribution through cash or in-kind funding from non-federal sources.

Updates on activities the United States Innovation Partnership (USIP) are now available through an e-mail distribution list. To subscribe, send an e-mail to USIP@asme.org

USIP establishes a new working relationship between the states and the federal government as an integral part of enhancing a National Innovation System to promote economic growth.

USIP strategies include: building strategic partnerships among federal and state governments, universities and industry; strengthening the national S&T system; defining the role of states in the S&T system; maximizing the return on investment from technology; creating mechanisms to promote innovation; building national excellence in manufacturing; and supporting product development and commercialization.

Industrial research and development spending totaled approximately $145 billion in 1996, a 10 percent increase for the second year in a row. More than 83 percent of that funding came from industry itself with the federal government providing the remaining funds, according to a new Data Brief prepared by the National Science Foundation. Small businesses, those with 500 or less employees, spent slightly more than $20.2 billion or 14 percent of the total industrial R&D spending in 1996. This represented a 21 percent increase over 1995's total.

The increase in total industrial R&D spending was highlighted by a rebound in R&D spending among manufacturers. Following eight years in which nonmanufacturing R&D rose about 15 percent each year in current dollars, while manufacturing increases were approximately three percent, the figures almost reversed themselves in a single year.

On June 25, Senators Bill Frist (R-TN) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) introduced a new bill, the Federal Research Investment Act (S. 2217). The purpose of the bill is to provide for the continuation of federal research investment in a fiscally sustainable way.

The Act is intended to encourage as an overall goal, the doubling of the annual authorized amount of federal funding for basic scientific, medical, and pre-competitive engineering research over the next twelve years. The bill also sets a minimum level of investment in order to maintain the high priority that science, engineering, and technology had previously been afforded in the federal budget.