Created in 1982 through the Small Business Innovation Development Act, the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program remains the nation's single largest innovation program for small business. The SBIR program offers competitive awards to support the development and commercialization of innovative technologies by small private-sector businesses. At the same time, the program provides government agencies with technical and scientific solutions that address their different missions.


SBIR at the Department of Defense considers ways that the Department of Defense SBIR program could work better in addressing the congressional objectives for the SBIR program to stimulate technological innovation, use small businesses to meet federal research and development (R & D) needs, foster and encourage the participation of socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses, and increase the private sector commercialization of innovations derived from federal R&D. An earlier report, An Assessment of the Small Business Innovation Research Program at the Department of Defense, studied how the SBIR program has stimulated technological innovation and used small businesses to meet federal research and development needs. This report builds on the previous one, with a revised survey of SBIR companies. SBIR at the Department of Defense revisits some case studies from the 2009 study and develops new ones, and interviews agency managers and other stakeholders to provide a second snapshot of the program's progress toward achieving its legislative goals.

Table of Contents


Front Matter
Summary
1 Introduction
2 SBIR Awards at the Department of Defense
3 Program Outcomes-Quantitative Assessment
4Commercialization Initiatives in the DoD SBIR Program
5 Insights from Case Studies and Extended Survey Responses
6 Program Management
7 Findings and Recommendations
Appendix A: Overview of Methodological Approaches, Data Sources, and Survey Tools
Appendix B: Major Changes to the SBIR Program Resulting from the 2011 SBIR Reauthorization Act, Public Law 112-81, December 2011
Appendix C: List of Universities Involved in DoD SBIR Awards
Appendix D: Glossary
Appendix E: 2011 NRC Survey Instrument
Appendix F: Selected Case Studies
Appendix G: Comparison Group Analysis
Appendix H: Bibliography