国会将小型企业创新计划延长了三年。怎么办？

您上周听到的集体救济来自全国各地的小型企业和大学创新者，他们一直屏住呼吸，以通过SBIR and STTR Extension Act of 2022。该法案,最终由国会周四通过，并于周五被总统签署为法律，确保了一项40岁的研发赠款计划的连续性，该计划的连续性investsabout $4 billion a year in 4,000 small businesses pursuing innovative research across all fields of science, technology, and medicine. The program had been facing termination at the end of September, with its extension held up due to concerns over non-competitiveness and risks of foreign influence. Last week’s extension bill, which Congress slid just under the deadline, includes key provisions to address those concerns, and reauthorizes the program for three years until September 30th, 2025.

什么是SBIR / STTR？

小型企业创新研究（SBIR）和小型企业技术转移（STTR）计划资助从事双重使用研究与开发（R＆D）的美国小型企业。他们的目标通常被称为“美国种子基金”，是刺激可以解决联邦机构任务并在私营部门商业化的创新。他们还寻求促进妇女的参与以及社会或经济上的弱势群体参与企业家精神。该计划是针对小型企业进行非债务资金的来源，这意味着它们不会放弃股权来换取SBIR资金。

SBIR has its roots in 1970s-era concerns that the United States was losing its technological and scientific edge in the global economy — concerns that are all too familiar today. Piloted at the National Sciences Foundation (NSF) and formally established in 1982, the program now includes 11 federal agencies. The five largest of those agencies (Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, NASA, and NSF) also fund STTR awards which require participation of a nonprofit research institution.

Each agency decides which research topics to fund, and awards funding in two sequential phases. For example, the Department of Defense呼叫for topics that meet warfighter mission needs, while the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds research related to novel cancer treatments, Alzheimer’s drugs, and更多的。The program’s success stories include household names like Qualcomm, Symantec, iRobot, and 23andme.

More broadly, the economic impact of both programs is massive. One frequently cited Department of Defense study claims that the two programsgenerateda 22-1 return on investment for the public between 1995 and 2018, with a total national economic impact of $347 billion and 1.5 million jobs created.

Key Hold Ups to Extension

鉴于迫在眉睫的授权失效，国会讨论了几个月的SBIR，但谈判成立了在一些关键问题上。金博宝正规网址其中之一是关于如何处理获得大量奖励的少数公司的分歧，有些人贬义地称为“Sbir Mills。”参加SBIR的大多数公司在其一生中仅获得一两个奖项。但是奖励分配有一个主要的偏斜：例如最近的分析发现只有10家公司占所有SBIR收件人公司的0.7％，自2000年以来就获得了所有SBIR奖项的6.5％。

有人争论这个偏斜是大型，精通的公司游戏的证据，该系统旨在推动小型企业和新进入者的创新。另一方面，有some evidence建议为这些企业提供价值m of scientific publications, inventions, follow-on funding, and commercialization, and may also serve as venues for talented scientists and engineers who go on to become founders.

The other major issue is that of foreign influence. Amidgeneral Congressional concerns over foreign involvementin the U.S. scientific enterprise, an oft-cited 2021 report from the Defense Departmentallegedly found troubling indications中国国家参与SBIR资助接收者。这些发现促使立法者谨慎地反弹。

主要账单部分的摘要

而国会保持部件l the final hours, theSBIR and STTR Extension Act of 2022最终获得了绝大多数人的批准。该法案的核心是整个计划的三年延长，并在2025年9月之前进行了几项SBIR试点计划。重新授权还包括一些新的规定，以解决过去的批评和关注点。让我们在下面解开这些包装。

New requirements

外国风险管理：The extension mandates each agency pursue diligence to assess the risk of foreign involvement with and ties to SBIR-funded small businesses. Business applicants will be required to disclose business relationships and financial arrangements before receiving an award, under threat of an agency funding clawback should a firm misrepresent itself. Relatedly, the bill requires multiple agencies to issue reports on foreign risks.

In practice, it is unclear how much of a burden the new financial reporting requirement will be for small businesses. Some startups, particularly first time awardees or those with foreign investors, could face challenges properly reporting this information. Others may be dissuaded from applying to SBIR solicitations entirely. It’s also unclear what mechanism would apply for managing foreign risk after a small business has received funding and completed the planned scope of work. To mitigate this, the SBA should be clear in its guidance to companies on what they need to disclose.

开放的主题:延期规定，国防部每年至少一个“公开主题”公告每个问题。开放的主题是技术不足的招标，任何小型企业都可以根据其拟议的创新做出回应。空军于2018年在国防部开设了开放主题模型，并根据2022GAO report, it proved successful in attracting first-time award winners (43% of awardees were net new) and cutting time to award (108-126 days faster on average). This new requirement also requests annual reports comparing open and conventional topic awards across a host of metrics.

Increased Minimum Performance Standards for Experienced Firms：The extension outlines higher performance standards for experienced firms regarding both Phase I and Phase II awards. They’re also known as “multiple award winners.” This is an effort to cut down on SBIR ‘mills’, but whether it will achieve this end or not is questionable. The number of companies these restrictions apply to is small, and the minimum penalty for not meeting the standard is a restriction to only 20 Phase I awards at每个代理商在明年。这些新限制的影响是一个悬而未决的问题，未来三年有望回答。最后，新标准删除了专利，以达到绩效标准。

这是新标准的细分：

Pilot programs

试点计划的重新授权，并包括新的努力，为SBA和决策者提供了从不同代理工作中学习更多信息的机会。他们将获得三年的数据，以权衡是否将这些飞行员​​永久编织到整个计划的结构中。飞行员的简要概述如下：

• 相位灵活性飞行员：NIH，DOD和ED可以直接向II期奖项发出资金，以资助可能太过先进的项目。
• Civilian Agency Commercialization Readiness Pilot：平民机构可以将其SBIR资金的10％用于技术援助，通常不受第二阶段奖项的涵盖。NIH使用它为速度较慢的流程（例如食品和药物管理局（FDA）批准，知识产权（IP）策略的制定或临床试验计划）提供了II期获奖者资源。
• Pilot to Accelerate DoD SBIR/STTR Awards：DoD required to simplify their award process and issue awards in about 90 days from start to finish.
• NIH概念证明伙伴关系飞行员的阶段：NIH can use $5 million of STTR funding to do proof of concept work. This pilot, otherwise known as theResearch and Evaluation Commercialization Hub (REACH) program, provides funds to research sites to address barriers to commercialization in biomedical basic science.
• 为行政，监督和合同处理费用援助试点：All agencies can use 3% of their funding for administration, outreach to new participants, and proposal writing assistance.
• 商业化援助计划：代理商可以利用其SBIR资金的5％来获得额外的奖项，并以匹配的资金为基金。

期待

该法案,which wascheered on由SBA负责人，将SBIR/STTR计划扩展了三年，而不是通常的五年。这意味着下一个关于重新授权和改革的辩论将很快接近。在随后的几年中，政策制定者将通过GAO和机构的一系列强制性报告获得有关该计划各个方面的其他数据和信息。ReportsReports

First, DoD, DOE, NSF, and HHS are required to produce a report on foreign influence and risks within 6 months. This will be the first comprehensive study of adversarial influence in the program across agencies.

Second, the GAO is required to conduct annual studies comparing open vs conventional topics for the next four years. These studies will compare solicitations across several metrics including transition rates, awardees, technology types, and others, and may help to shed light on policy-relevant similarities and differences between the models.

Third, GAO is mandated to report on multiple award winners within 18 months of enactment. The report will examine commercialization rates, types of technology and their federal impact, potential lifetime award caps, and the effect of the enacted performance standards on firms.

With luck, these collective reports will provide valuable inputs to the next round of reform – which will hopefully not have to wait until the last minute next time. For our part, we’ll be looking forward to learning more about the program through these mandated reports, and doing our own research on areas for improvements. We’re looking for diverse perspectives from practitioners, ecosystem builders, and small businesses on how the program might be improved. Unearthing opportunities for the various elements of the program to evolve will help agencies and entrepreneurs unlock their full potential.