Estimating the Cost of Administering the Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program

Abstract

Congress is in the process of reauthorizing the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which expires in 2008. One issue being considered in the reauthorization is whether to allow partial use of SBIR set-asides for SBIR program administration costs and, if so, at what levels. Currently, the use of SBIR funds to administer the SBIR program is prohibited, and SBIR administration must be funded from other sources. Our analysis estimates that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) spends, on average, an additional 6 percent on top of the SBIR set-asides to administer its SBIR program. That percentage is higher than that for government programs that predominantly award grants (rather than contracts), equal to or lower than levels for other government R&D programs, and lower than the total compensation levels for venture-capital (VC) organizations. Further analysis is required to understand the benefits of alternative levels of administrative investments for the DoD SBIR program.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA475695

Entities

People

  • Bruce Held
  • Kenneth Horn
  • Somi Seong

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Business Administration
  • Commerce
  • Contracts
  • Cost Estimates
  • Databases
  • Department Of Defense
  • Engineering
  • Governments
  • Law
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Small Business
  • Unified Combatant Commands

Readers

  • Defense Technology Research and Development.
  • Government and Public Administration Law.
  • Software Engineering