SBTC Testifies on SBIR Reauthorization
April 29, 2009
 
At a hearing last week, Congress was urged to renew one of the most successful innovation programs in U.S. history. Testifying on behalf of the Small Business Technology Council, SBTC Executive Director Jere Glover documented the success of the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, which is due for renewal by Congress. He testified before the Technology and Innovation Subcommittee of the House of Representatives’ Science and Technology Committee.

Glover pointed out that the SBIR Program has just emerged from one of the most extensive analyses of any federal science program ever undertaken by the National Academy of Sciences. The NAS study, which was requested by the House Science and Technology Committee, took more than five years and $5 million to complete. The study praised SBIR extensively, showing that it is meeting, and in most cases exceeding, every benchmark that Congress set for the program, across 11 participating federal agencies.

Glover also pointed out to the Subcommittee that the percentage of scientists and engineers employed by small companies has been skyrocketing – from 6 percent in 1978 to 38 percent in 2007 – so that more scientists and engineers today work for small companies than for universities, nonprofits, large businesses or the government itself. One result of this shift has been that the SBIR Program now accounts for a third more patents annually that all U.S. universities combined. And SBIR delivers about a quarter of the nation’s most important innovations each year, according to a recent independent study.

Yet small business receives only 4.3 percent of federal R&D dollars and SBIR accounts for over half of that.

Glover also reminded the Subcommittee of the indispensible role that small business plays in creating new jobs, especially during and immediately after recessions. In the light of the strongly favorable assessment of SBIR by the NAS, and the importance of small business as a job creator – including jobs for the nation’s scientists and engineers – plus SBIR’s dramatic accomplishments in generating valuable innovations, Glover asked Congress to increase the allocation of R&D dollars to SBIR.

The House Science and Technology Committee is expected to approve legislation extending the SBIR Program soon. Two other Committees also must approve this legislation: the House Small Business Committee and the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

To read the testimony, click here.

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