By Kritika Agarwal
Lawmakers have reached agreement on legislation that would reauthorize two crucial federal programs that facilitate innovation by making it easier for startups and other small businesses to bring research discoveries to market. The agreement to reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs comes five months after they expired at the end of the last fiscal year.
Known collectively as “America’s Seed Fund,” the SBIR and STTR programs provide technology-focused small businesses with early-stage funding to commercialize their ideas and bring new innovations to market. The programs connect university research to entrepreneurs and startups and ensure that federally funded discoveries do not gather dust in labs, but instead are turned into real-world applications.
Eleven federal agencies currently participate in the programs, which are administered by the Small Business Administration. The Department of Defense has the largest budget for the programs; according to Politico Pro, DOD’s Office for Small Business Innovation recently “warned congressional staff that it could begin shuttering its operations and redistribute any remaining funding” were the programs not renewed soon.
A recent report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) examined DOD’s SBIR and STTR programs and found that they helped connect the agency with small businesses from across the nation and helped support the department’s mission and broadened the industrial base. NASEM recommended that Congress extend the programs permanently.
The agreement to reauthorize the programs came after months of bipartisan negotiations between the leaders of the House and Senate Small Business Committees and the House Science Committee. The agreed-upon bill – the “Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act” – would extend the SBIR and STTR programs for five years until September 30, 2031. In a statement to Breaking Defense, Senate Small Business Committee Chair Joni Ernst (R-IA) said that the bill “will strengthen the integrity of America’s Seed Fund while unlocking new innovation.”
The bill was introduced by Sen. Ernst and Senate Small Business Committee Ranking Member Ed Markey (D-MA) on February 25 via the “hotline” process. If the bill gets unanimous consent, it will move quickly through both the Senate and the House. A brief section-by-section summary of the bill is available on the Small Business Technology Council website.
Kritika Agarwal is assistant vice president for communications at AAU.