Triple-Sized Awards: Good or Bad?

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a reauthorization of the SBIR program.  This is good in that SBIR would otherwise expire at the end of September.  But the House has made a number of changes which significantly change the program.  One example, the size of Phase I awards has been raised from $100K to $300K and Phase II from $750K to $2.2 million.  Since the award level had not been raised in 16 years, this is good, right?

Yes and no.  While the allowable award size has gone up, the pool of money from which these awards is made has not gone up.  The possible result:  if all participating federal agencies go up to the new maximum, there could only be one-third as many awards!!!  That, coupled with other changes could shift a significant amount of funding to later-stage companies and make it much more difficult for the small start-up company to get the seed capital they need from the SBIR program.

Many companies have looked at the proposed changes and are concerned.  If you would like some good late night reading, read the House Bill H.R. 5819--SBIR Reauthorization Bill.  It now goes to the U.S. Senate.  If you have any concerns about the very significant changes that the House has passed, please pass these onto your U.S. Senators.