Defense Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR). Volume 1. Army Abstracts of Phase 1 Awards 1991

In 1982, Congress enacted and the President signed the Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982 Public Law 97-219, which created the Small Business Innovation Research SBIR Program to give small, high- technology firms a greater share of the federally-funded research and development contract awards. Under the SBIR Program, each federal agency with an extramural budget for research or research and development in excess of 100 million per fiscal year must establish an SBIR Program. The program is funded by setting aside 1.25 percent of the participating agencys extramural R and R and D contracting dollars. The agencies participating in the Department of Defense SBIR Program are the Army, Navy, Air Force, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA, Defense Nuclear Agency DNA, and Strategic Defense Initiative Organization SDIO. The objectives of the DoD SBIR Program include stimulating technological innovation in the private sector, strengthening the role of the small business in meeting DoD research and development needs, encouraging participation by minority and disadvantage persons in technological innovation, and increasing the commercial application of DoD-supported research or research and development. The SBIR Program consists of three distinct phases. Under Phase I, DoD components make awards to small business, typically of up to one man-year of effort over a period of six months, subject to negotiation. Phase I is to determine, insofar as possible, the scientific or technical merit and feasibility of ideas or concepts submitted in response to SBIR topics.