Deep Tech Commercialization

Congress in December reached an agreement on the FY 2022 defense authorization bill (i.e. “NDAA”). That increases research funding by $7 billion and includes support for expanding the Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) reach, research at minority-serving institutions, and commercialization pilots.

It also has several provisions to improve the commercialization potential of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. This blog intends to break down this commercialization topic and share some of our learnings over the last couple of years as we built and experimented with a program designed to accelerate SBIR awardees. To learn more about how the SBIR program can help Deep Tech companies, please reference this link.

Improving the SBIR commercialization rate is a recurring theme. Every few years, the issue about poor commercialization rates of the SBIR programs surface. Certain Congressional representatives raise concerns about continual funding of “SBIR mills,” companies that continue to be awarded SBIR after SBIR. This year is no different, given that the SBIR program is authorized through September 2022 and faces a renewal vote.

When the SBIR program was conceived in 1982, fulfilling governmental research needs was seen as an end in itself. Commercialization was not the primary motivation. The wild success of Qualcomm, ViaSat and several other companies that started with a Phase I SBIR, hinted that the SBIR program could be the impetus of successful commercialization. Hence, over the last two decades…