Volume 5, Number 2     March/April 1997

  Welcome to Innovation

Changing the Place, Face and Pace of SBIR/STTR

by Carl G. Ray, SBIR/STTR Executive

ELCOME TO THE NEW SECTION ON THE Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs! The winds of change sweeping through NASA have left many fresh and new looks about the agency. The SBIR and STTR programs are no exception. Now under the Office of Aeronautics and Space Transportation Technology, we have increased the pace of strategic, administrative and operational enhancements to the programs.

Congress established the SBIR program in 1982 to increase opportunities for small businesses to participate in federal research and development (R&D), increase employment and improve overall U.S. competitiveness. Specific program objectives are to stimulate U.S. technological innovation, use small business to meet federal R&D needs, foster and encourage participation in technological innovation by socially and economically disadvantaged persons and increase private-sector commercialization of innovations derived from federal R&D. In 1992, legislation was enacted to extend and strengthen the SBIR program, increasing the emphasis on the commercial application of resulting SBIR project products. In addition, that year's legislation authorized the STTR program, which is similar to SBIR in policy, objectives and structure, but requires cooperative research between a small business concern and a nonprofit research institution (that is, a university, a federally funded research and development center or a federal laboratory).

The pace of change in the program has been rapid over the last few months. While there continue to be major program enhancements at the management levels, there are strategic shifts as well. The strategic focus for the programs center around cultivating innovative solutions to NASA needs, facilitating small business commitment in developing new and innovative technologies and maximizing the potential for commercialization of any technologies developed. As for innovative solutions to NASA needs, one strategic change is the programmatic alignment of SBIR/STTR with the strategic planning and direction of the NASA Strategic Enterprises.

Therefore, solicitation research topics and resulting selections are aligned with Enterprise strategic planning outcomes and focused on the high-priority technology needs of the agency. Subtopics will be more significantly influenced by the needs of each NASA Enterprise—Aeronautics, Human Exploration and Development of Space, Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) and Space Science. Along with this alignment, NASA's SBIR/STTR strategies are using the Internet to make outreach information more available to small businesses in terms of the solicitation process, and a network of NASA Technology Transfer Centers is providing access to technical and commercial assistance resources throughout all program phases.

The SBIR/STTR programs have succeeded in technology developments that have led to dual-use applications in NASA missions and commercial products. For example, NASA's MTPE program is using ultraviolet instruments with SBIR technology developed at Barr Associates, Westford, Massachusetts, to study a variety of phenomena. NASA's uses of the filters include (1) the Imaging Science Subsystem of NASA's Cassini mission to assist in generating images of Saturn in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet ranges of the spectrum and (2) the Methane Raman Lidar System to study atmospheric methane, an important greenhouse gas. Barr Associates has applied what it learned to develop new filters for commercial applications, such as small filters that help make what were once tabletop instruments into portable units. These filters, used mainly in portable miniature spectrometers, are sold to commercial laboratories. NASA also is funding an SBIR project with Thermacore, Inc., Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for systems that require heat rejection, such as for the Space Shuttle and Space Station. These heat pipes are used to cool the main central processor "chip" in notebook computers. The pipes provide industry-leading performance and have received strong market acceptance both domestically and overseas since their introduction in May 1995.

SBIR/STTR program activities continue to seek ways to maximize the agency's benefit through the program—specifically, to provide the small business community opportunities to develop technology that meets NASA's needs and commercial applications. Armed with a recognition that the small business community is rich in innovative potential, the SBIR/STTR program continues to find new ways to maximize the opportunities for innovative solutions to become commercial successes.

For more information about SBIR/STTR, contact Carl Ray at NASA Headquarters. Call 202/358-4652.
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