NASA Tech Briefs: What is the purpose of NASBO and how is your center involved? Julie Holland: The NASA Commercialization Center is one of nine business incubators that NASA has helped to develop, and it just so happens that our center does drive pretty deeply into the service arena in terms of offering support to companies that are commercializing NASA-funded products. The NASBO program specifically addresses the needs of the SBIR Phase II companies in the Southern California area. There are two objectives in the SBIR program in Phase I and II. Phase I is a technical proof of concept; Phase II is further development of a promising technology, usually ending up with a design prototype of something that indicates it is functional. None of the Phase I or II award can be spent on commercialization activities. Yet, commercialization is how those proposals are evaluated, and the expectation is that the technology will be commercialized. In the vernacular of the SBIR program, that is just referred to as a Phase II to Phase III. Phase III means that the technology is commercialized. The government is not involved in that. In the past, the only way of addressing in any concrete way to Phase III was a bit hit or miss. Often, it was if the government had an interest in the product - that was one avenue. Then they might - in NASA’s case, if it went into a mission - some of the further application development needed or product claims would be generated because there would be testing and validation that it was a substantial technology or product. That is by no means an organized approach. There are SBIR companies that have systematically figured out how to strategically use the SBIR program to develop platform technologies and products, and have successfully gotten their product to market. That shows real leadership. NASA was interested in seeing if it could provide resources that would accelerate the commercialization rate. This pilot program is the vision of Carl Ray, the director of NASA’s SBIR/STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) program. He’s watched the program and he sees that the commercialization component could be stronger in terms of performance metrics, and he has, for some time, thought that there ought to be a way to assist. NASA does not expect that it will remain a totally NASA initiative. There are two objectives for the NASBO program. One is to prove that providing assistance of this type has merit. The other is to develop or organize a business model so a chapter like this one can be started in other areas of the country, evolving into a national network of chapters that service the SBIR community. NTB: What has the interest been in expanding the program? Holland: The most recent concrete interaction I’ve had was a presentation I did in Albuquerque at the SBIR Conference, and about half of the people there came up to me afterwards and wanted to know about the model, and were interested in starting something like this in their city. There is interest among both the SBIR Phase II companies, and with those interested in organizing something. NTB: How does this pilot program help both NASA and the private sector? Holland: Commercialization, in its broadest form, has two avenues: one is to the private sector, and one is back into the government entity, whether it’s the agency that funded the SBIR, or another government entity. There is increased emphasis, at least on NASA’s part, that the SBIR technologies that have been funded and overseen by NASA be utilized in programs as appropriate and to the degree that is reasonable. That’s called a spin-in. It’s a balance in how the technology might be developed in an application for NASA, or how it might be conceived for a different kind of customer in a different market in the private sector. There is increased interest in making sure that those dollars that have been spent have been leveraged across both avenues, making it a spin-in and a spinoff. NTB: What types of companies can best benefit from the program? Holland: They are NASA SBIR Phase II companies that understand the value of using the SBIR program to a strategic advantage. That means those who use funding for developing technology, but who have a real intent in developing a product or technology platform, and they’re willing to commit time and resources to that effort. This program will be able to provide some assistance in talent, people, and resources that will help them, but we also expect there to be a strong commitment from the company’s side to that effort. NTB: What types of companies have applied to the program? Holland: In terms of requesting applications, in the region this pilot is covering, there were 44 candidates for the program. They were NASA SBIR Phase II companies that had received awards in the last three or more years. From those 44 companies, there were nine selected for the pilot program. There are no two alike. It is everything from breakthrough life sciences to very specific work with radiation hardening. It was deliberately broad so that it was a good test case in that it is a pilot – not only in the maturity of the commercialization effort, but in the types of technologies. We had to learn test qualification criteria, test resources, test the manner in which they’re delivered, and the ability for companies at different levels of maturity to participate actively and remain engaged. In a very broad sense, we’ve categorized the companies we’re working with at three stages of commercialization maturity: Stage one is pre-business plan, where they’re still working on market concepts; stage two is a business plan in place and fund-raising activities are active; and stage three is funding has been secured and time is being spent on the product launch side. NTB: What types of success stories have you had so far with the program? Holland: Xcom Wireless is an excellent example of a company that is using the SBIR program strategically, which is what it was intended to be, as a way of funding early research that was the intent of commercializing the technology. The company is far enough along in development that they have just attracted $2.5 million in seed capital from a company called Ardesta. They have a well laid-out plan of what is required for the remaining technical development portion. The aspect we’re working on with them in this case is that we’ll be ironing out how one proceeds with the spin-in process, making sure that as many government programs as possible know about the technology. Their technology is an RF wireless MEMS technology. They’re about 18 months away from having their product to market. They now have attracted the money to get them to that point. We’re implementing the business development side. (See the sidebar in the May issue of NTB, page 13) NTB: How is NASA promoting this program? Holland: NASA has contributed to the funding for this program. We also raise
significant
funds locally to match that, since it has economic
benefit for the local area. But we have to be careful because one of
the aspects of this program is that the business model has to be developed.
In order for other regions to launch a program, or to be sanctioned as
legitimate NASBO chapters, there are qualifications in order to start
an organization that is endorsed by NASA, and those details are being
worked out. We’re not ready to launch it nationally, and other
than the Southern California companies that were invited to apply, we’re
not able to accommodate more SBIR companies right now. The expectation
is that in the next year it will be possible.
Previous interviews: April
2003 March
2003 February
2003
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