In response to a Congressional mandate, the National Research Council conducted a review of the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) at the five federal agencies with SBIR programs with budgets in excess of $100 million (DOD, NIH, NASA, DOE, and NSF). The project was designed to answer questions of program operation and effectiveness, including the quality of the research projects being conducted under the SBIR program, the commercialization of the research, and the program's contribution to accomplishing agency missions. This report summarizes the presentations at a symposium exploring the effectiveness of Phase III of the SBIR program (the commercialization phase), during which innovations funded by Phase II awards move from the laboratory into the marketplace. No SBIR funds support Phase III; instead, to commercialize their products, small businesses are expected to garner additional funds from private investors, the capital markets, or from the agency that made the initial award.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is one of the largest examples of U.S. public-private partnerships. Founded in 1982, SBIR was designed to encourage small business to develop new processes and products and to provide quality research in support of the many missions of the U.S. government, including health, energy, the environment, and national defense. In response to a request from the U.S. Congress, the National Research Council assessed SBIR as administered by the five federal agencies that together make up 96 percent of program expenditures. This book, one of six in the series, reports on the SBIR program at the National Science Foundation. The study finds that the SBIR program is sound in concept and effective in practice, but that it can also be improved. Currently, the program is delivering results that meet most of the congressional objectives, including stimulating technological innovation, increasing private-sector commercialization of innovations, using small businesses to meet federal research and development needs, and fostering participation by minority and disadvantaged persons. The book suggests ways in which the program can improve operations, continue to increase private-sector commercialization, and improve participation by women and minorities.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is one of the largest examples of U.S. public-private partnerships, and was established in 1982 to encourage small businesses to develop new processes and products and to provide quality research in support of the U.S. government's many missions. The U.S. Congress tasked the National Research Council with undertaking a comprehensive study of how the SBIR program has stimulated technological innovation and used small businesses to meet federal research and development needs, and with recommending further improvements to the program. In the first round of this study, an ad hoc committee prepared a series of reports from 2004 to 2009 on the SBIR program at the five agencies responsible for 96 percent of the program's operations-including NASA. In a follow-up to the first round, NASA requested from the Academies an assessment focused on operational questions in order to identify further improvements to the program. Public-private partnerships like SBIR are particularly important since today's knowledge economy is driven in large part by the nation's capacity to innovate. One of the defining features of the U.S. economy is a high level of entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurs in the United States see opportunities and are willing and able to assume risk to bring new welfare-enhancing, wealth-generating technologies to the market. Yet, although discoveries in various fields present new opportunities, converting these discoveries into innovations for the market involves substantial challenges. The American capacity for innovation can be strengthened by addressing the challenges faced by entrepreneurs.

This book provides a straightforward, user-friendly approach for preparing a NIH Phase I SBIR/STTR application. The proposal preparation process is spread over a 10-week period, and tasks are completed in a logical progression. The time requirement ranges from 10 to 25 hours per week, leaving sufficient time for other business activities. Dr. Garland draws on her years of SBIR/STTR proposal preparation experience, providing useful tips to ensure your application is highly competitive and that the entire preparation process proceeds smoothly.

The recent momentum and urgency around translating science and technology into health innovation is inspiring. It is transforming academia, too, as the rapidly-evolving world of health innovation has given rise to a new breed of academic - the academic entrepreneur - who works to move ideas from initial research to practical implementation. The work of these individuals is crucial to realizing the potential of investments in better care, and yet there existed no central repository for information and wisdom relevant to their mission; no place to house and explore the evolving knowledge base around translating evidence into impact.We aim to build one. In the spirit of collaboration, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Research Institute collaborated with the University of Pennsylvania's (Penn) Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT) to seed fund a grassroots effort of editors, subject matter experts, and translational research students to create a free open education resource stored on ScholarlyCommons (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA).Academic Entrepreneurship seeks to build a diverse community of empowered professionals who know how to bridge the worlds of academic research and commercialization to turn ideas and discoveries into innovations that provide value to patients, providers, and healthcare systems, thereby realizing full market potential and societal impact. This book is a repository of tools, advice, and best practices that establishes a foundation for academic researchers and innovators wherever they may reside.Recognizing that academic entrepreneurs are busy and bright, and have limited time to learn entrepreneurship, the chapters in this book were designed as an efficient and state-of-the-art source of guidance. With carefully curated content as a strong foundation, the reader will have quick introductions to key topics in academic entrepreneurship and innovations with a list of resources for those who wish to go further.This book was created as a limited print run of the first edition of the living content stored in the University of Pennsylvania's open access repository, ScholarlyCommons, as of 1/1/2020. As a living e-textbook, the content of Academic Entrepreneurship for Medical and Health Scientists is continuously enhanced and revised.