Volume 5, Number 6     November/December 1997

  Small Business/SBIR

Increased Chances For Phase III

articipants completing Phase II of NASA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program may have a better chance at successful commercialization in Phase III.

Phase II awardees of NASA's Small Business Technology Transfer Program presented innovative biomedical projects to an expert review board in November at a NASA Technology Commercialization Review in Houston, Texas, the first of many, with varied focuses, to be conducted by the National Technology Transfer Center (NTTC).

NASA representatives have tasked NTTC to guide participants toward successful partnerships and commercialization.

"Our panel of experts in the technology and business commercialization field provided participants with the missing links," NTTC Director of Operations Sunni Richmond said. "The participants have the technologies that have been fully developed, tested, and readied for commercialization."

SBIR Phase II awardees were provided with valuable information, such as the importance of having and following a commercialization plan. NTTC will follow-up with the participating companies on any resulting commercialization developments. Entrepreneurs typically stay focused on particular market segments based on their interest and tend to overlook other opportunities of equal or more importance, according to Richmond.

"The review provided promising opportunities," participant Dr. Kisholoy Goswami of Physical Optics Corporation, Torrance, California, said. "The board members, with diverse backgrounds, were helpful in identifying new markets that I hadn't considered." Goswami, in his seventh quarter of NASA Phase II SBIR program, said the review emphasized the importance for a small business to have a well thought out commercialization plan and follow that plan.

Dr. Benjamin Mosier, president of Institute for Research, Inc., Houston, agrees that the review was a valuable experience for his company's commercialization efforts.

"The reviewers worked together as a single cohesive unit to formulate valuable comments, recommendations and guidelines that will enable our technology to come to fruition."

The next review will be held in March and the focus will be on composite material.

For more information, contact Sunni Richmond at NTTC.
Call (800) 678-6882,E-mail: srichmond@nttc.edu

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