- (a) Declaration of policy
Research and development are major factors in the growth and progress of
industry and the national economy. The expense of carrying on research and development programs is beyond the means of many small-business concerns, and such concerns are handicapped in obtaining the benefits of research and development programs conducted at Government expense. These small-business concerns are thereby placed at a competitive disadvantage. This weakens the competitive free enterprise system and prevents the orderly development of the national economy. It is the policy of the Congress that assistance be given to small-business concerns to enable them to undertake and to obtain the benefits of research and development in order to maintain and strengthen the competitive free enterprise system and the national economy.
- (b) Assistance to small-business concerns
It shall be the duty of the Administration, and it is empowered -
- (c) Consultation and cooperation with Government agencies; studies and
recommendations
The Administration is authorized to consult and cooperate with all Government
agencies and to make studies and recommendations to such agencies, and such agencies are authorized and directed to cooperate with the Administration in order to carry out and to accomplish the purposes of this section.
- (d) Joint programs; approval of agreements; withdrawal of approval;
publication in Federal Register
- (1) The Administrator is authorized to consult with representatives of
small-business concerns with a view to assisting and encouraging such firms to undertake joint programs for research and development carried out through such corporate or other mechanism as may be most appropriate for the purpose. Such joint programs may, among other things, include the following purposes:
- (A) to construct, acquire, or establish laboratories and other facilities for
the conduct of research;
- (B) to undertake and utilize applied research;
- (C) to collect research information related to a particular industry and
disseminate it to participating members;
- (D) to conduct applied research on a protected, proprietary, and contractual
basis with member or nonmember firms, Government agencies, and others;
- (E) to prosecute applications for patents and render patent services for
participating members; and
- (F) to negotiate and grant licenses under patents held under the joint
program, and to establish corporations designed to exploit particular patents obtained by it.
- (2) The Administrator may, after consultation with the Attorney General and
the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, and with the prior written approval of the Attorney General, approve any agreement between small-business firms providing for a joint program of research and development, if the Administrator finds that the joint program proposed will maintain and strengthen the free enterprise system and the economy of the Nation. The Administrator or the Attorney General may at any time withdraw his approval of the agreement and the joint program of research and development covered thereby, if he finds that the agreement or the joint program carried on under it is no longer in the best interests of the competitive free enterprise system and the economy of the Nation. A copy of the statement of any such finding and approval intended to be within the coverage of this subsection, and a copy of any modification or withdrawal of approval, shall be published in the Federal Register. The authority conferred by this subsection on the Administrator shall not be delegated by him.
- (3) No act or omission to act pursuant to and within the scope of any joint
program for research and development, under an agreement approved by the Administrator under this subsection, shall be construed to be within the prohibitions of the antitrust laws or the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.). Upon publication in the Federal Register of the notice of withdrawal of his approval of the agreement granted under this subsection, either by the Administrator or by the Attorney General, the provisions of this subsection shall not apply to any subsequent act or omission to act by reason of such agreement or approval.
- (e) Definitions
For the purpose of this section -
- (f) Federal agency expenditures for SBIR program
- (1) Required expenditure amounts
Each Federal agency which has an extramural budget for research or research
and development in excess of $100,000,000 for fiscal year 1992, or any fiscal year thereafter, shall expend with small business concerns -
- (A) not less than 1.5 percent of such budget in each of fiscal years 1993 and
1994;
- (B) not less than 2.0 percent of such budget in each of fiscal years 1995 and
1996; and
- (C) not less than 2.5 percent of such budget in each fiscal year thereafter,
specifically in connection with SBIR programs which meet the requirements of this section, policy directives, and regulations issued under this section.
- (2) Limitations
A Federal agency shall not -
- (A) use any of its SBIR budget established pursuant to paragraph (1) for the
purpose of funding administrative costs of the program, including costs associated with salaries and expenses; or
- (B) make available for the purpose of meeting the requirements of paragraph
(1) an amount of its extramural budget for basic research which exceeds the percentages specified in paragraph (1).
- (3) Exclusion of certain funding agreements
Funding agreements with small business concerns for research or research and
development which result from competitive or single source selections other than an SBIR program shall not be considered to meet any portion of the percentage requirements of paragraph (1).
- (g) Administration of small business innovation research programs by
Federal agencies required to establish such programs
Each Federal agency required by subsection (f) of this section to establish a
small business innovation research program shall, in accordance with this chapter and regulations issued hereunder -
- (1) unilaterally determine categories of projects to be in its SBIR program;
- (2) issue small business innovation research solicitations in accordance with
a schedule determined cooperatively with the Small Business Administration;
- (3) unilaterally determine research topics within the agency's SBIR solicitations,
giving special consideration to broad research topics and to topics that further 1 or more critical technologies, as identified by -
- (4) unilaterally receive and evaluate proposals resulting from SBIR proposals;
- (5) subject to subsection (l) of this section, unilaterally select awardees
for its SBIR funding agreements and inform each awardee under such an agreement, to the extent possible, of the expenses of the awardee that will be allowable under the funding agreement;
- (6) administer its own SBIR funding agreements (or delegate such administration
to another agency);
- (7) make payments to recipients of SBIR funding agreements on the basis of
progress toward or completion of the funding agreement requirements and, in all cases, make payment to recipients under such agreements in full, subject to audit, on or before the last day of the 12-month period beginning on the date of completion of such requirements; and
- (8) make an annual report on the SBIR program to the Small Business Administration
and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
- (h) Establishment of goals for funding agreements for research or
research and development to small business concerns by agencies having budgets for research and development In addition to the requirements of subsection (f) of this section, each Federal agency which has a budget for research or research and development in excess of $20,000,000 for any fiscal year beginning with fiscal year 1983 or subsequent fiscal year shall establish goals specifically for funding agreements for research or research and development to small business concerns, and no goal established under this subsection shall be less than the percentage of the agency's research or research and development budget expended under funding agreements with small business concerns in the immediately preceding fiscal year.
- (i) Annual report to Small Business Administration of awards over
$10,000 in amount
Each Federal agency required by this section to have an SBIR program or to
establish goals shall report annually to the Small Business Administration the number of awards pursuant to grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements over $10,000 in amount and the dollar value of all such awards, identifying SBIR awards and comparing the number and amount of such awards with awards to other than small business concerns.
- (j) Small Business Administration policy directives for the general
conduct of small business innovation research programs
- (1) Policy directives
The Small Business Administration, after consultation with the Administrator
of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Intergovernmental Affairs Division of the Office of Management and Budget, shall, within one hundred and twenty days of July 22, 1982, issue policy directives for the general conduct of the SBIR programs within the Federal Government, including providing for -
- (2) Modifications
Not later than 90 days after October 28, 1992, the Administrator shall modify
the policy directives issued pursuant to this subsection to provide for -
- (A) retention by a small business concern of the rights to data generated by
the concern in the performance of an SBIR award for a period of not less than 4 years;
- (B) continued use by a small business concern participating in the third
phase of the SBIR program, as a directed bailment, of any property transferred by a Federal agency to the small business concern in the second phase of an SBIR program for a period of not less than 2 years, beginning on the initial date of the concern's participation in the third phase of such program;
- (C) procedures to ensure, to the extent practicable, that an agency which
intends to pursue research, development, or production of a technology developed by a small business concern under an SBIR program enters into follow-on, non-SBIR funding agreements with the small business concern for such research, development, or production;
- (D) an increase to $100,000 in the amount of funds which an agency may award
in the first phase of an SBIR program, and to $750,000 in the second phase of an SBIR program, and an adjustment of such amounts once every 5 years to reflect economic adjustments and programmatic considerations;
- (E) a process for notifying the participating SBIR agencies and potential
SBIR participants of the 1991, 1992, and the current critical technologies, as identified -
- (F) enhanced outreach efforts to increase the participation of socially and
economically disadvantaged small business concerns, as defined in section 637(a)(4) of this title, and the participation of small businesses that are 51 percent owned and controlled by women in technological innovation and in SBIR programs, including the third phase of such programs, and the collection of data to document such participation;
- (G) technical and programmatic guidance to encourage agencies to develop
gap-funding programs to address the delay between an award for the first phase of an SBIR program and the application for and extension of an award for the second phase of such program;
- (H) procedures to ensure that a small business concern that submits a
proposal for a funding agreement for the first phase of an SBIR program and that has received more than 15 second phase SBIR awards during the preceding 5 fiscal years is able to demonstrate the extent to which it was able to secure third phase funding to develop concepts resulting from previous second phase SBIR awards; and
- (I) procedures to ensure that agencies participating in the SBIR program
retain the information submitted under subparagraph (H) at least until the General Accounting Office submits the report required under section 105 of the Small Business Research and Development Enhancement Act of 1992.
- (k) (Reserved)
- (l) Reporting of awards made from single proposal, to multiple award
winners, or to critical technology topics
- (1) Single proposal
If a Federal agency required to establish an SBIR program under subsection (f)
of this section makes an award with respect to an SBIR solicitation topic or subtopic for which the agency received only 1 proposal, the agency shall provide written justification for making the award in its next quarterly report to the Administration and in the agency's next annual report required under subsection (g)(8) of this section.
- (2) Multiple awards
An agency referred to in paragraph (1) shall include in its next annual report
required under subsection (g)(8) of this section an accounting of the awards the agency has made for the first phase of an SBIR program during the reporting period to entities that have received more than 15 awards for the second phase of an SBIR program during the preceding 5 fiscal years.
- (3) Critical technology awards
An agency referred to in paragraph (1) shall include in its next annual report
required under subsection (g)(8) of this section, an accounting of the number of awards it has made to critical technology topics, as defined in subsection (g)(3) of this section, including an identification of the specific critical technologies topics, and the percentage by number and dollar amount of the agency's total SBIR awards to such critical technology topics.
- (m) Termination
The authorization to carry out the Small Business Innovation Research Program
under this section shall terminate on October 1, 2000.
- (n) Required expenditures for STTR by Federal agencies
- (1) Required expenditure amounts
Each Federal agency which has an extramural budget for research or research
and development in excess of $1,000,000,000 in fiscal year 1994, 1995, or 1996, is authorized to expend with small business concerns -
- (A) not less than 0.05 percent of such budget in fiscal year 1994;
- (B) not less than 0.1 percent of such budget in fiscal year 1995; and
- (C) not less than 0.15 percent of such budget in fiscal year 1996, specifically
in connection with STTR programs which meet the requirements of this section, policy directives, and regulations issued under this section.
- (2) Limitations
A Federal agency shall not -
- (A) use any of its STTR budget established pursuant to paragraph (1) for the
purpose of funding administrative costs of the program, including costs associated with salaries and expenses, or, in the case of a small business concern or a research institution, costs associated with salaries, expenses, and administrative overhead (other than those direct or indirect costs allowable under guidelines of the Office of Management and Budget and the governmentwide Federal Acquisition Regulation issued in accordance with section 421(c)(1) of title 41); or
- (B) make available for the purpose of meeting the requirements of paragraph
(1) an amount of its extramural budget for basic research which exceeds the percentage specified in paragraph (1).
- (3) Exclusion of certain funding agreements
Funding agreements with small business concerns for research or research and
development which result from competitive or single source selections other than an STTR program shall not be considered to meet any portion of the percentage requirements of paragraph (1).
- (o) Federal agency STTR authority
Each Federal agency required to establish an STTR program in accordance with
subsection (n) of this section and regulations issued under this chapter, shall -
- (1) unilaterally determine categories of projects to be included in its STTR
program;
- (2) issue STTR solicitations in accordance with a schedule determined
cooperatively with the Administration;
- (3) unilaterally determine research topics within the agency's STTR solicitations,
giving special consideration to broad research topics and to topics that further 1 or more critical technologies, as identified -
- (4) unilaterally receive and evaluate proposals resulting from STTR solicitations;
- (5) unilaterally select awardees for its STTR funding agreements and inform
each awardee under such an agreement, to the extent possible, of the expenses of the awardee that will be allowable under the funding agreement;
- (6) administer its own STTR funding agreements (or delegate such administration
to another agency);
- (7) make payments to recipients of STTR funding agreements on the basis of
progress toward or completion of the funding agreement requirements and, in all cases, make payment to recipients under such agreements in full, subject to audit, on or before the last day of the 12-month period beginning on the date of the completion of such requirements;
- (8) submit an annual report on the STTR program to the Administration and the
Office of Science and Technology Policy;
- (9) develop a model agreement not later than July 31, 1993, to be approved by
the Administration, for allocating between small business concerns and research institutions intellectual property rights and rights, if any, to carry out follow-on research, development, or commercialization;
- (10) develop, in consultation with the Office of Federal Procurement Policy
and the Office of Government Ethics, procedures to ensure that federally funded research and development centers (as defined in subsection (e)(8) of this section) that participate in STTR agreements -
- (A) are free from organizational conflicts of interests relative to the STTR
program;
- (B) do not use privileged information gained through work performed for an
STTR agency or private access to STTR agency personnel in the development of an STTR proposal; and
- (C) use outside peer review, as appropriate; and
- (11) not later than July 31, 1993, develop procedures for assessing the
commercial merit and feasibility of STTR proposals, as evidenced by -
- (A) the small business concern's record of successfully commercializing STTR
or other research;
- (B) the existence of second phase funding commitments from private sector or
non-STTR funding sources;
- (C) the existence of third phase follow-on commitments for the subject of the
research; and
- (D) the presence of other indicators of the commercial potential of the idea.
- (p) STTR policy directive
- (1) Issuance
The Administrator shall issue a policy directive for the general conduct of
the STTR programs within the Federal Government. Such policy directive shall be issued after consultation with -
- (A) the heads of each of the Federal agencies required by subsection (n) of
this section to establish an STTR program;
- (B) the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks; and
- (C) the Director of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy.
- (2) Contents
The policy directive required by paragraph (1) shall provide for -
- (A) simplified, standardized, and timely STTR solicitations;
- (B) a simplified, standardized funding process that provides for -
- (i) the timely receipt and review of proposals;
- (ii) outside peer review, if appropriate;
- (iii) protection of proprietary information provided in proposals;
- (iv) selection of awardees;
- (v) retention by a small business concern of the rights to data generated by
the concern in the performance of an STTR award for a period of not less than 4 years;
- (vi) continued use by a small business concern, as a directed bailment, of
any property transferred by a Federal agency to the small business concern in the second phase of the STTR program for a period of not less than 2 years, beginning on the initial date of the concern's participation in the third phase of such program;
- (vii) cost sharing;
- (viii) cost principles and payment schedules; and
- (ix) 1-year awards for the first phase of an STTR program, generally not to
exceed $100,000, and 2-year awards for the second phase of an STTR program, generally not to exceed $500,000, greater or lesser amounts to be awarded at the discretion of the awarding agency;
- (C) minimizing regulatory burdens associated with participation in STTR
programs;
- (D) guidelines for a model agreement, to be used by all agencies, for
allocating between small business concerns and research institutions intellectual property rights and rights, if any, to carry out follow-on research, development, or commercialization;
- (E) procedures to ensure that -
- (i) a recipient of an STTR award is a small business concern, as defined in
section 632 of this title and the regulations promulgated thereunder; and
- (ii) such small business concern exercises management and control of the
performance of the STTR funding agreement pursuant to a business plan providing for the commercialization of the technology that is the subject matter of the award; and
- (F) procedures to ensure, to the extent practicable, that an agency which
intends to pursue research, development, or production of a technology developed by a small business concern under an STTR program enters into follow-on, non-STTR funding agreements with the small business concern for such research, development, or production.
- (q) Discretionary technical assistance
- (1) In general
Each Federal agency required by this section to conduct an SBIR program may
enter into an agreement with a vendor selected under paragraph (2) to provide small business concerns engaged in SBIR projects with technical assistance services, such as access to a network of scientists and engineers engaged in a wide range of technologies, or access to technical and business literature available through on-line data bases, for the purpose of assisting such concerns in -
- (A) making better technical decisions concerning such projects;
- (B) solving technical problems which arise during the conduct of such
projects;
- (C) minimizing technical risks associated with such projects; and
- (D) developing and commercializing new commercial products and processes
resulting from such projects.
- (2) Vendor selection
Each agency may select a vendor to assist small business concerns to meet the
goals listed in paragraph (1) for a term not to exceed 3 years. Such selection shall be competitive and shall utilize merit-based criteria.
- (3) Additional technical assistance
- (A) First phase
Each agency referred to in paragraph (1) may provide services described in
paragraph (1) to first phase SBIR award recipients in an amount equal to not more than $4,000, which shall be in addition to the amount of the recipient's award.
- (B) Second phase
Each agency referred to in paragraph (1) may authorize any second phase SBIR
award recipient to purchase, with funds available from their SBIR awards, services described in paragraph (1), in an amount equal to not more than $4,000 per year.
- (r) Third phase agreements
- (1) In general
In the case of a small business concern that is awarded a funding agreement
for the second phase of an SBIR or STTR program, a Federal agency may enter into a third phase agreement with that business concern for additional work to be performed during or after the second phase period. The second phase funding agreement with the small business concern may, at the discretion of the agency awarding the agreement, set out the procedures applicable to third phase agreements with that agency or any other agency.
- (2) "Third phase agreement" defined
In this subsection, the term "third phase agreement" means a follow-on,
non-SBIR or non-STTR funded contract as described in paragraph (4)(C) or paragraph (6)(C) of subsection (e) of this section.
- (3) Intellectual property rights
Each funding agreement under an SBIR or STTR program shall include provisions
setting forth the respective rights of the United States and the small business concern with respect to intellectual property rights and with respect to any right to carry out follow-on research.