Technology Entrepreneur
©
The Source for Small Business Technology Information
A Publication of the Small Business Technology Council
March 2008
Turning up the Pressure:
SBTC Presses Ahead on SBIR Reauthorization As the deadline for renewal of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program by Congress approaches, SBTC continues its push to have the Program renewed and strengthened. Not only to keep SBIR functioning, but to increase the allocation of federal R&D funds that go to it. To maximize our effectiveness in Washington, SBTC members need to keep up the strong “grass-roots” pressure on Congress, emphasizing that SBIR is vital to thousands of small technology-based companies. To keep the ball rolling on these activities, and to update SBTC members on the current legislative situation, we will be holding conference calls for SBTC members on the first Tuesday of each month at 11am Eastern Time (8am Pacific Time). The next two calls will be on Tuesday March 4th and Tuesday April 2nd.The conference call-in number is: (641) 7153200 and the Access Code is: 582615#. If
Countdown to SBIR Expiration:
29 Weeks Urge Congress to renew SBIR today. Visit www.sbtc.org for more details. you need assistance in accessing the call, or have a question about the call, please contact Alec at (202) 662-9700 x 337. Alec will also be helping coordinate with SBTC members on their visits to Members of Congress. His e-mail address is alec@sbtc.org To review the steps for contacting your Senators and Representative, go to the Member Center of the SBTC website, www.sbtc.org, and look over the “Resource Guides” materials that we’ve posted there. Also in the “Resource Guides” area of the Member Center of the SBTC website are lists of Members of Congress who sit on key Committees and a link to a search engine that can help you find other SBIR
Not so Quiet on the Western Front:
Congress Approves $85 million for Commercialization of Small Business Defense Technologies Small, technology-based companies will get a commercialization boost, and American soldiers, sailors and pilots will get the benefit of some of the nation’s top new technologies, thanks to Congressional approval of a special $85 million appropriation. The funds will support deployment of defense technologies, developed by small companies, that have reached the working prototype stage,
particularly those that have successfully completed SBIR Phase II. defense technologies to be deployed will be chosen from those that have reached the working prototype stage, particularly those that have successfully completed SBIR Phase II. SBTC worked closely with Congress on this issue, and praised several key legislators for pushing the changes and the funding through.
awardees in your area. After you’ve made your contacts with Congress, there are more things that you can do to help out. We need: • Reauthorization chairs for a number of states • Chairs for each agency SBIR Program – DoD, NIH, NASA, NSF, DoE, etc • Encouragement for other SBIR Program participants to contact Congress
Monthly Conference Call Join us the first Tuesday of each month at 11:00 a.m. EST to get the latest updates on the Reauthorization of SBIR. Upcoming conference calls will occur: • Tuesday, March 4 • Tuesday, April 2 • Tuesday, May 6 Conference Call Dial-in Information: • Dial (641)715-3200 • Enter Access Code: 582615# For further assistance or if you have a question please contact Alec at (202)662-9700 x337 or alec@sbtc.org
(Continued on Page 3) -1-
Technology Entrepreneur
SBTC Accomplishments Strengthening the commercialization process for SBIR technologies • Working with Congress to pass an $85 million add-on to the SBIR Program -- to promote the commercialization of SBIR defense technologies and their adoption by mainstream Defense Department acquisition programs. Recently signed into law, this appropriation marks the single greatest boost ever given to the commercialization of SBIR technologies. • Building the program that could administer the $85 million appropriation. SBTC helped Congress design and implement the Commercialization Pilot Program at DoD. CPP created a defined path from SBIR Phase I and Phase II awards at DoD into SBIR Phase III commercialization, something that had not previously existed. • Highlighting the examples and setting the benchmarks that led to CPP. SBIR was the first organization to recognize and honor the exceptional federal SBIR Program Managers who successfully commercialized SBIR technologies using SBIR Phase III. SBTC also published a “White Paper” on SBIR commercialization at DoD which offered many recommendations that were eventually adopted by the CPP. Re-establishing an event to publicly recognize the most successful technologies and companies in the SBIR Program • Assuring that SBIR success stories are recognized. After federal budget cuts eliminated the famed “Tibbetts Awards,” which had been bestowed annually on the most successful SBIR technologies and companies, SBTC stepped in to manage the event and the awards. Named for Roland Tibbetts, the individual acknowledged as the “father” of the SBIR Program, these juried awards raise the visibility of top technology-based small companies in the communities they serve, in Congress, and among investors. At several gala events, SBTC has now bestowed more than 100 “Tibbetts Awards” on individuals and Technology Entrepreneur
companies, with many of the awards being presented by Mr. Tibbetts himself. Providing small technology-based companies with superb SBIR Program guidance from top officials and experts • Developing a series of sold-out conferences on navigating the SBIR Program. SBTC brings together top officials at federal agencies, SBIR Program Managers, and successful companies in the Program to offer the best advice available anywhere on accessing the SBIR Program and competing effectively within it. SBTC’s reputation for putting on top-flight conferences is so strong that our conferences generally sell out within days of their announcement. Leading the charge for expansion of the SBIR Program • Spearheading the successful reauthorization of SBIR in 2000, and leading the effort to grow the SBIR Program in the 2008 reauthorization. SBTC has testified before Congress more than a half-dozen times since 2006 on the achievements of the SBIR program and the need to grow the Program from 2½% of extramural R&D to 5% at participating agencies. Several bills have been introduced to incorporate SBTC’s recommendations into SBIR. • Vigorously, and successfully, opposing five years of efforts by large venture capital company and biotech lobbyists to change the character of the SBIR Program. These large company interests have been attempting to permit businesses that are not small -- and even universities -- to access SBIR contract awards. Assisting the most extensive scientific study ever undertaken of the SBIR Program • Providing information and specific company examples to support a landmark study of SBIR by the National Academy of Sciences. (Continued on Page 3)
-2-
Spread the SBTC Word Within Your Company
Is everyone who “needs to know” in your company on the SBTC e-mail list? We are happy to send up to ten copies of the SBTC newsletter and major SBTC announcements to individuals that you designate within your company. Just send the names and e-mail addresses of those you want to include to Alec at alec@sbtc.org.
SBTC Events SBTC conferences offer a great way to stay abreast of important developments a ff e c t i n g technology entrepreneurs. SBTC’s two sold-out “SBIR in Rapid Transition” conferences in 2007 brought top Small Business Innovation Research Program experts in government together with SBIR awardees to explain the latest developments, particularly developments in commercialization. Presentations from those conferences will be found at www. sbtcevents.com and on the SBTC website. At its Tibbetts Awards presentations, SBTC acknowledges outstanding companies in the SBIR Program -- companies with great innovations and significant “multiplier effects” in their communities. For a list of these companies, go to www.tibbettsawards.com.
Not So Quiet on the Western Front: (Continued from page 1) The Department of Defense Appropriations Act for FY2008 allots $20 million to the Army to transition small business technologies into its Future Combat System and $40 million for the Navy to do the same with its submarine and surface ship programs. Another $25 million will be used to draw such technologies into the multi-service Joint Strike Fighter Program.
This unprecedented Congressional action is a huge breakthrough for small technology-based companies, which have traditionally faced difficulties in getting the Defense Department to adopt even their most promising technologies. It is also an extremely valuable precedent for getting other federal agencies in the SBIR Program to concentrate more on making SBIR Phase III work.
Spearheading the effort to utilize these promising small business technologies were Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA). Kerry chairs the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Harkin is a key member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SBTC Accomplishments (Continued from page 2) In the 2000 reauthorization of SBIR, Congress called on the National Research Council to undertake an extensive study of SBIR. NAS awarded this study to the National Academy of Sciences, which invested more than 5 years and $5 million on the study. SBIR cooperated closely with NAS at every step of the way. The finished study, released in late 2007, was highly supportive of SBIR, concluding that the SBIR program was “sound in design and effective in practice” and that it could be successfully expanded. Restoring SBIR program cuts • Getting DoD to restore $73 million to the SBIR program that had been inappropriately removed by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). When MDA attempted to reduce its SBIR Program through “creative bookkeeping,” SBTC moved rapidly and successfully to restore the full amount of the program. • Intervening quickly when the Air Force unilaterally and without public notice suspended its SBIR Program. Working with allies in the Defense Department and on Capitol Hill, got the Program back up and running, with all contracts honored, within three weeks. Making sure that patent rights are protected for small, technology-based companies • Opposing any weakening of the enforceability of validly issued patents, and any efforts to undermine the “first to invent” U.S. system of intellectual property protection.
Setting favorable precedents • In winning the funding disputes with the Pentagon, SBTC reinforced the legal point that no federal agency has the right to exempt itself from the SBIR program, or to undercut the program’s statutory requirements. Extending SBIR to Homeland Security • Successfully revising the early drafts of the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security – and that would have exempted DHS from the SBIR program – so that a full SBIR program was instituted at the new Department. Building government support for SBIR • Building a strong constituency for the SBIR program among members of Congress and Congressional staffers. • Meeting frequently with the federal government’s SBIR Program Managers and making annual awards to top managers. Improving SBIR Program rules • Spearheading legislation that required federal agencies to improve their SBIR program rules. Assisting SBA in drafting overall guidance for those improvements, which – • Strengthened the intellectual property rights of SBIR companies, and • Greatly improved the ability of companies to obtain SBIR Phase III awards. • Getting the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve the publication of the revised rules and assuring that the rules have the force of law. Despite resistance -3-
from several federal agencies, SBTC accomplished this, in part by having Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), then Chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Committee, publicly call on OMB to approve the revisions. Opposing contract bundling • Playing a major role in attacking “contract bundling” by federal agencies by – • Sending a Task Force to meet with top officials in the White House Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) as they worked to carry out a Presidential mandate to end contract bundling, and • Commissioning a study for OFPP that clearly showed the harm that contract bundling was doing. • OFPP’s subsequent nine-point Anti-Bundling Directive, and new anti-bundling rules adopted by the Defense Department, NASA, the General Services Administration and other federal agencies, incorporated many of SBTC’s points and recommendations. Defending the financing needs of small technology-based companies •
•
Opposing an initiative by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to require all companies -- even small, nonpublic ones -- to expense their stock options. Supporting legislation that would exempt smaller companies from the stock option expensing requirement. Technology Entrepreneur
Help Sustain SBIR
Identify New Companies to Join SBTC Companies that draw on the SBIR Program, or plan to, need to participate in the effort to get SBIR renewed by Congress. And there is no better way to do that than to join SBTC. We focus on the SBIR reauthorization every day, and we have up-to-the-minute information on what’s happening with the renewal drive. Most SBTC company executives know colleagues in other SBIR companies who would benefit from SBTC’s guidance on approaching Congress about SBIR renewal, as well as SBTC’s meetings, conferences, and newsletters. Send us those names! Our new membership director is Tony Pascal, who can be reached by e-mail at tpaschal@sbtc.org, or by phone at 202-552-2925. Just give Tony the prospective member information and he’ll take care of the rest!
Save the Date
Washington Presentation Scheduled for June 3 - 5, 2008 Our colleagues in the National Small Business Association have made reauthorization of the SBIR Program one of their top Congressional priorities for 2008. This spring, at their annual “Washington Presentation,” NSBA offers SBTC members a great opportunity to join forces in urging Congress to extend and strengthen SBIR. The “Washington Presentation” is a two-day series of events for small businesses that includes a briefing on key small business issues, top speakers, a Congressional breakfast, and office visits with Members of Congress. This year’s “Washington Presentation” will be especially important for companies in the SBIR Program because the dates, June 3rd and 4th, occur during the thick of the SBIR reauthorization discussion on Capitol Hill. SBTC will be continuing with its visits to public officials on June 5th, so companies attending the annual Navy Opportunity Forum in Washington can join us. Please plan to attend. Additional information will be posted soon on the NSBA website (http://www.nsba.biz/) as well as the SBTC website (www. sbtc.org). For assistance in setting up visits with your Member of Congress, contact alec@sbtc.org or call him at 202-662-9700.
1156 15th Street, NW Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20005