Latest News from Rick Shindell on SBIR Authorization
07/30/2009
Dear SBIR Insider,
This is an abbreviated SBIR Insider to let you know that the House just passed the Senate’s Continuing Resolution (CR), S.1513 that keeps the SBIR program, as well as a few other SBA programs running (as is) through September 30, 2009. The CR is good in some ways and bad in others as you will see.
SBIR SAVED FROM LAPSING BY AN 11TH HOUR CR
The House and Senate have been meeting regularly in conference to reconcile their vastly different SBIR reauthorization bills into one cohesive SBIR reauthorization before the deadline date of July 31, 2009 when the program’s current CR will expire. Although significant progress has been made, there’s still a good deal of work to be done and it was simply not possible to reconcile their views before the deadline.
In the event that the SBIR bill could not be passed before the deadline, Senator Marry Landrieu (D-LA), chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, along with her ranking member, Olympia Snowe (R-ME) sponsored a bill (S.1513) to issue a short continuing resolution for SBIR and a few other SBA programs through September 30, 2009. The bill passed the Senate by Unanimous Consent on July 24 and was sent to the House.
Due to some contentious issues going on in the House (nothing to do with SBIR), the vote was postponed from Tuesday but was passed Wednesday by voice vote. Nothing has been easy in this SBIR reauthorization exercise.
The Good News - Negotiations will continue at staff level while the congress is on their August break (August 7 - September 8), and with this extra time to work the issues, it is hoped that a better reauthorization can be reached and passed by Congress when they return. In the mean time the program continues. The high profile of SBIR reauthorization has promoted (to some degree) overall congressional awareness of the importance and success of the program, so it is unlikely that SBIR will go away, but it could change immensely, perhaps beyond recognition. We’ll discuss that in the next issue.
The Bad News - The uncertainties of the SBIR program future, its intricacies and demands, are causing a great deal of hardship on the agencies who are struggling to support the program, not to mention plan for whatever changes Congress has in mind. This also affects the small businesses who wonder if funding will be available, and if so, under what circumstances (keeping in mind that all of the awards are subject to the availability of funding).
During the congressional recess (aka “district work period”) the senators and representatives will visit their districts and may be available to hear your input, either one-on-one or at a town hall. In our next issue (coming soon), we will highlight the areas of difference between the two reauthorization bills, and you can decide if you want to champion any issues that affect you and your organization.
STTR PARTNERING EXPERIMENT PART II
You may remember our DoD STTR Partnering Experiment earlier this year that allowed Universities, FFRDCs, non profits and small businesses to look for an STTR partner for a particular DoD STTR topic. We had over 300 topic registrations last time and we will try it again for the DoD FY-09B STTR and the current NASA STTR. I’m currently behind the power curve on this project but you should be able to access it from our SBIR Gateway by Monday, August 3, 2009 (hopefully sooner over the weekend).
Here’s how it works:
1. Universities, FFRDCs, small businesses and other non-profit research entities fill out the form and select the STTR topics of partnering interest.
2. A database will be created that associates the topics with the interested organizations as described above.
3. Interested parties can search the topic database to see what organizations may be interested in partnering on specific topics.
4. Participating organization’s contact information will be presented as a result of the search.
As with all Zyn’s SBIR Gateway features, it is an independent effort (not supported by any government agency) and is a no charge service in the hopes of helping you build successful SBIR/STTR relationships. You’ll find the project at http://www.zyn.com/sbir
THE 2009 NATIONAL SBIR BEYOND PHASE II CONFERENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE
This Advanced SBIR Conference will take place September 21 - 24, at the Marriott World Center Hotel and Convention Center in Orlando, Fl. This popular event is hosted by the Department of Defense with participation of other government SBIR agencies. A primary goal is to provide a forum to transition SBIR Phase II technology to government and private sector markets. Many of the DoD Prime contractors attend seeking the innovation they need in their supply chain.
The conference will feature One-on-One technology matchmaking, Prime/Large Company Confirmed Participants, exhibits by phase II companies, large businesses, SBIR support companies, and industry service providers. There will also be educational and plenary sessions of interest to SBIR participants.
We hear the advanced registration discount has been extended through August 15, 2009. Get all the details at https://www.beyondphaseii.com or contact Andy Talbert at conference@esncc.com
The 2009 FALL NATIONAL SBIR CONFERENCE - RENO, NV After an absence of almost a year, the National SBIR conference returns! This year’s Fall National SBIR conference is going to be held November 2 - 5 in Reno, NV and will have a great variety of sessions of interest to beginners, intermediate and advanced SBIR participants. All of the SBIR agencies participate in these national SBIR conferences and it is a great opportunity to network one-on-one with SBIR program managers, and potential partners from universities, other small businesses and federal laboratories.
For complete information visit their web site at http://www.unr.edu/sbir-sttr2009/
That’s all for this quickie edition of the SBIR Insider.
Sincerely,
Rick
Rick Shindell
SBIR Gateway
Zyn Systems
40 Alderwood Dr.
Sequim, WA 98382
360-681-4123
rick@zyn.com
www.zyn.com/sbir
