Competitive+Grant+Programs

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===Managing competitive grant programs to strengthen a country’s science base by supporting high quality R&D to address national needs ===

Questions - please add comments

 * 1) The US SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) program has been a model for most such grant programs around the world. But is it the best, are there better models?
 * 2) If your country has adapted the SBIR model, what has been your experience?

 This primer on grants is not a policy document [ add link to policy document sources ] but rather a summary of good practices gained from experience. It assumes grants are competitive with applications submitted through a call for proposals followed by evaluation and selection of winners.

Grant programs typically fall into three categories: (i) Commercialization grants is to determine the commercial feasibility of ideas and to convert research into commercial applications, (ii) Joint research with both domestic and foreign industry, including outsourced corporate R&D, and new product development, (iii) Joint research with international research partners.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Almost all pre-commercialization grant programs are modeled after the US SBIR (small business innovation research) program [citation needed for which countries]. Grants are typically awarded in three phases to support: development of a commercially-interesting scientific idea at the concept stage, investigation of the feasibility of the idea and proof of concept, and finally full R&D and prototype development. There is a need to look at other possible models.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Joint research grants provide incentives to research and R&D consortia from universities, research institutes, and private industrial companies undertaking collaborative R&D, and research training, in areas of importance to a country's industrial development. Research institutes and universities need help in establishing partnerships and obtaining contracts for cooperative research with international partners. The foreign participant would generally be expected to fund all their own expenses.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Modules

 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Types of Grants
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grants for technology development and commercialization
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: normal;">Pre-Commercialization Grants
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grants for Joint Research with Industry
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grants for Joint Research with International Research Partners
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grants for International patenting
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grants for Industrial internships for scientists
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Design problems and solutions.
 * 9) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Relationship of pre-commercialization grants and joint research grants to another country initiatives – e.g. investment funds.
 * 10) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Evaluating grant submissions.
 * 11) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Monitoring grants and evaluating grant outcomes.
 * 12) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Case examples.
 * 13) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Budgeting.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">These Modules are a guide only to the planned content of this Handbook Section. Please add new content to this page, or use the discussion Tab. As the wiki grows we will move things around.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grants for technology development and commercialization
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grant financing is an integral component of the spectrum of finance instruments to support technology development and commercialization. Grant programs can work in cooperation with financing provided by angel investors, seed capital funds, venture capital funds, public-private partnerships, and other forms of private equity. Large firms generally have sufficient access to capital to meet their R&D and commercialization financing needs, but small and medium enterprises typically do not.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grants may operation on two levels (i) support for specific projects, and (ii) support for innovation strategy (including such components as developing an innovation eco-system, infrastructure or networks). Grants are frequently provided in phases based on certain milestones being achieved. Grants are used to promote diverse activities, such as:


 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Stimulate firms to carry out R&D either in particular ways or in particular areas of need by targeting these in the grant eligibility requirements.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Stimulate collaborative R&D and new product development between universities and/or research institutes and industry.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Create R&D and product development consortia.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Bridge gaps between short term funding and long term funding.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Conduct proof of concept and prototyping in order to attract long term finance.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Reduce risk for later stage finance by funding the high risk stage of innovation (also called the “front end of innovation”).
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Develop linkages between firms and along supply chains.
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Increase a firm’s ability to access private sector financing.
 * 9) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Obtain training in needed skills and technical and management assistance, and access know-how.
 * 10) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Purchase advisory services such as mentoring, problem solving, and consulting.
 * 11) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Strengthen human resource development and institutional capacity.
 * 12) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Obtain market information (carry out market intelligence).
 * 13) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Package and promote a firm’s products or services.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Expectations for what a successful grant applicant is expected to achieve with grant funding must be developed and made clear. While grants are typically provided by the public sector, they may also be part of a private or public private technology development system (e.g. grants may be provided by public or public-private national innovation investment funds as pre-investment support).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Some questions for deciding whether to use a competitive grant program:


 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What is the need to be addressed or problem to be solved?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Is the grant designed to address a market failure? If so, for what products or services?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Would a grant program deal most effectively with the problem or should it be addressed by some other type of investment?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Would a grant program reduce or eliminate a situation that discourages private investment?
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Do the benefits of a grant program justify the costs?
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Would the proposed grant program have unintended and perhaps undesirable side-effects?
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What is the best design of the grant scheme? Should it intervene on the demand side or on the supply side?
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What criteria determine who is eligible to receive a grant?
 * 9) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For what activities and for what monetary amount should the grants be devised? Do all eligible parties have fair and equal access to the grants?
 * 10) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Is the capacity to implement the scheme sufficient?
 * 11) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Does the expected future use of grant schemes warrant relevant capacity building?
 * 12) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Are transparency and accountability sufficiently planned?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Types of Grants
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Grants, unlike loans, usually have no requirement for the funds to be paid back.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Matching Grants require funding from another source or sources, in addition to funding from the granting organization. The match may be set at a percentage of the grant component – not necessarily 50%. The match funding may be in cash or a part may be “in-kind” in the form of services, facilities, or equipment. Having the grant recipient responsible for finding match funds is regarded as an incentive to assure performance. However, in the case of matching grant programs directed at SMEs, it may be difficult for an SME to raise the money. Therefore, setting the appropriate match percentage is important.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Reimbursable (repayable) Grants are unusual but are sometimes used in an attempt to recycle funds where grant funds are limited. Repayment by recipient SMEs which, for example, have increased sales as a result of the grant will be encouraged to make voluntary repayments to help other firms (similar to a “soft loan”).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Intellectual Property Rights
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> A grant funding program may be introduced in a context where the intellectual property rights framework is incomplete. In such a case, grants may be used to develop this capacity at the same time as supporting R&D and innovation. An agreement must be in place on who will own the intellectual property created by the research, technology development, or any commercial activity financed by the grant and those providing matching funds (if any). Also, an agreement must be in place on how future licensing royalties will be distributed among all players.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Typical structure of a commercialization grant program
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The goal of the grant program is to provide grant financing to enable scientists to demonstrate the technical feasibility of their laboratory discoveries and also to enable them to develop a business plan and detailed marketing strategy if necessary.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Note that it may not always be necessary to write a complete business plan at this stage. Many potential partners and investors will only want to see a short outline showing what needs the technology addresses or what problems it will solve, together with knowledge of competitors. Producing a full business plan before it's needed can be a waste of effort.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> “Pre-commercialization stage” means that, based on existing needs and products, the science and technology being developed appears to have possible commercial potential but this has not yet been demonstrated. Therefore the grants will support investigation of the feasibility of the idea, and proof of concept, through full R&D and typically prototype development.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> At the pre-commercial stage of research and development (R&D) it is very difficult to obtain private investment. Venture capital, or even seed capital or “angel” investment is not typically available at the pre-commercialization stage because (1) the technology is largely unproven, and (2) it may not be clear if a business can be built around the technology, and therefore investors considers the risk to be too high. The proposed grant program helps to fill this market gap.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Several countries have created government financed two-phase grant program to fund pre-commercialization stage R&D activities. Grants are awarded on a competitive basis to small businesses engaged in R&D, and also partnerships between small businesses and research entities such as research institutes and universities, or partnerships between R&D organizations and larger enterprises which need to absorb R&D.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Typical funding for a developing country might be:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Phase 1. Feasibility of idea, proof of concept (up to 1 year) Grants up to $25,000
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Phase 2. Full R&D, prototype (up to 2 years) Grants up to $150,000

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> - although the amounts can be adjusted to match needs and each country’s science, technology, and innovation environment.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> To move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 support the grant recipient should clearly demonstrate that the proposed solution to a problem or invention is feasible, and that the proposed solution to a problem or invention has clear commercial potential.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Grant applications should be peer reviewed by in-country and international experts in the area of science and technology of the proposal.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> In a Phase 3 the technology developed during Phases 1 and 2 will be moved to the end users. No grant funding will be available for Phase 3, but as a part of Phase 2 requirements, the grant recipient will be expected to begin negotiations with potential users. > Domestic or foreign companies (including regional firms) may identify R&D problems of importance to their operations. These needs may be identified in cooperation with the Government.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Commercialization R&D needs may be identified in several ways:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A Government may identify R&D problems of importance to the nation’s economy, industry, or security.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A research scientist has an invention, but requires funds to do pre-commercialization feasibility testing and prototype development to help determine is commercial feasibility.


 * 1) <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">A country Government may identify R&D problems of importance to the nation’s economy, industry, or security.
 * 2) <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">Domestic or foreign companies may identify R&D problems of importance to their operations. These needs may be identified in cooperation with the Government.
 * 3) <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">A research scientist has an invention, but requires funds to do pre-commercialization feasibility testing and prototype development to help determine is commercial feasibility.

The Basic Technology Commercialization Path
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An illustration of how individual grants may be applied during the commercialization path.
 * 1) Implementation of experimental development works, risk research of an applied nature
 * 2) Preparing a feasibility study of an innovative project
 * 3) Patents in international patent organizations
 * 4) Acquisition of innovative technology
 * 5) Staff training (focus on medium/large enterprises)
 * 6) Improving the efficiency of business processes (focus on medium/large enterprises)
 * 7) Conducting industrial research
 * 8) Creation of high-tech industries
 * 9) Commercialization of technology

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grant and investment Policy Issues
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Policies should focus on the practical rather than the ideological. A practical problem for many developing countries in negotiating financing agreements to either acquire a <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> technology or out-license IP is that someone has to "put money on the table" meaning make a commitment to get started. Someone has to take the first step and agree to provide initial funding which could be matched later by others. Sometimes this can be in the form of a grant for early stage development. But, if these grants take too long to be approved (as is often the case) the deal may be lost. In other business transactions, such as real estate purchase, this takes the form of “earnest money” – a small amount to demonstrate good faith. The ability to provide such small sums quickly at a very early stage should be built in to other forms of early stage technology development or technology translation funding. This is an example of the need for a policy response at the “meso level” where intermediary organizations work to manage relationships with governments and deliver public policies, and where the public and private sector tend to meet.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Note that usually angel and seed funding rely on the availability of later stage capital to be able to get a return on their investment through their share being bought out. Of special interest to developing countries is that some investment models specifically attempt to address the “investment gap” which is also referred to as the “valley of death” which occurs when private and public funding is either unavailable in the first place or runs out, and where the company’s net cash flow does not close the funding gap. Many businesses – frequently ones based on research discoveries - continue to reside in the valley of death because they lack the necessary financial support and skilled <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> management teams to progress into the “proof of relevancy” phase. To address this gap, foundations and advocacy groups have stepped in to try to provide grant funding. However, these investments are generally insufficient to carry these startups to follow-on venture capital funding.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grant Application Review Process
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> A Grant Application Review Process may, but not necessarily, consists of two stages:


 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Applicants submit a short concept note or brief description of the problem to be solved and the applicant’s proposed approach, using a specified format.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Authors of promising first stage submissions are then invited to submit full proposals for further review and possible funding.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> By limiting the number of full proposals which have to be reviewed in detail, the two-stage method reduces transaction costs.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> First stage proposals are usually screened by an administrator against set criteria for adherence to guidelines and completeness. There may also be a brief review by technical experts.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Full proposals are peer reviewed by technical experts (who may not be based in the country), who are either members of a permanent panel or outsourced by the program administrator. The reviewers evaluate the proposals based on stated selection criteria, including scientific merit, technical feasibility, budget, and other criteria for specific programs. As a result of the peer review, the application for a grant may be approved, rejected, or a request made to the applicant for clarifications or changes – and re-submission before a certain date. The total budget available for disbursement will naturally also be a limit to the number of funded grant applications.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Pre-Commercialization Grants
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The “pre-commercialization stage” means that, based on existing needs and products, the science and technology being developed appears to have possible commercial potential but this has not yet been demonstrated. At the pre-commercial stage of research and development (R&D) it is very difficult to obtain private investment. Venture capital, or even seed capital or “angel” investment, is not typically available at the pre-commercialization stage because (1) the technology is largely unproven, and (2) it may not be clear if a business can be built around the technology, and therefore investors considers the risk to be too high. A pre-commercialization stage grant program can help to fill this market gap.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The objective of a pre-commercialization grant is to determine the commercial feasibility of ideas and to convert research into commercial applications. Therefore the grants should support investigation of the feasibility of the idea, and proof of concept, through full R&D and typically prototype development.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Grant financing can be provided to enable scientists to demonstrate the technical feasibility of their laboratory discoveries and also to enable them to develop a business plan and detailed marketing strategy. The grants may be awarded in three phases to support: (i) development of a commercially-interesting scientific idea at a concept stage, (ii) investigation of the feasibility of the idea, and proof of concept, and (iii) full R&D and prototype development. The grants may be awarded on a competitive basis to small businesses engaged in R&D, and also partnerships between small businesses and research entities such as research institutes and universities. Grant applications should be peer reviewed by local and international experts in the area of science and technology related to the proposal.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grants for Joint Research with Industry
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The purpose of this grant program is to promote joint research with both domestic and foreign industry. A country’s research institutes and universities may need help in obtaining contracts for joint research with industry, outsourced corporate R&D, and new product development. This program would provide grants to research consortia from universities, research institutes, and private industrial companies undertaking collaborative R&D, and research training, in areas of importance to the country’s industrial development. The private industry and public sector agencies involved in the consortia will be required to make in-kind and cash commitments to support these cooperative activities.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grants for Joint Research with International Research Partners
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Research institutes and universities may need help in establishing partnerships and obtaining contracts for cooperative research with international partners. The foreign participant would generally be expected to fund all their own expenses, but a developing country’s institutions generally do not have the funds to finance their share of the joint research project. The joint research grant program would be used to defray these costs. Clear, transparent eligibility criteria and systems to ensure accountability for the use of funds must be developed. This program will have a simplified selection process, since the fact that a legitimate foreign partner is financing a portion of the project cost should provide some sort of de facto quality control.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grants for International patenting
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The objective of this type of grant program is to help defray the cost of patenting inventions with commercial potential in North America, the EU, and Asia. Protection in high growth markets of the IP underpinning successfully commercialized inventions is essential if global markets are to be accessed by a country’s technology-based companies and research institutes, with sales of resulting products in these markets. Small businesses, universities and research institutes face many obstacles in obtaining foreign patents, but cost is the greatest impediment. Reasons for the high cost of foreign patenting include; costs incurred in each location when patents are applied for simultaneously in several countries, high foreign patent office fees, translation cost, and legal fees incurred dues to the complexity of many foreign patent laws. Patent costs vary widely, but the typical total cost for obtaining and maintaining a U.S. patent on a single invention for 20 years is at least $10,000 and may be several times his figure depending on the complexity of the invention. However, it can cost at least $160,000 to $360,000 to obtain and similarly maintain the patent in nine other countries for the same invention. Applications could be evaluated by an independent panel of domestic and international experts. Grants will only be made when ownership of foreign patents by the country’s organization (institute, university, company) is judged essential for business development. Available support for foreign patenting should also help attract seed or venture capital investment to new ventures. It is important to note that patenting abroad is not sufficient. It is also just as important to determine who owns the invention and who has the right to file for a patent when the invention has been funded in whole or in part with budget resources.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grants for Industrial internships for scientists
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The purpose of this grant program is to help scientists obtain economically relevant, first hand, on-the-job experience in how companies convert research into new products and services. They would obtain this experience by working for a short period of time alongside experienced industrial scientists in domestic or foreign company research laboratories. Most importantly, the program would help scientists develop professional contacts with industrial research laboratories. Industrial internships promote the “learning by doing” approach to learning. Some formal training will be necessary, but most learning will be “on the job”. It has been demonstrated in the West that most successful technology commercialization, through licensing for example, was initiated by scientist-to-scientist contacts. The key is to identify the right person within a company, gain the attention of that person, and then convert interest into a conviction that the company needs your knowledge. Industrial internships will help build these interpersonal relationships. Industrial internships can also be a tool to market a country’s knowledge resources. Many multinational companies suggest the greatest benefits, such as innovative new products, will result from ideas that can be generated by an interactive relationship with scientists outside the company over a period of time. In the view of some multinationals, big breakthroughs that will create large financial upside are now being achieved through iterative creative relationships between networks of scientists that cannot be pinned down to a series of specific commercial contracts. Therefore researchers and research institutes in developing and middle-income countries need to position themselves in the marketplace so that they can benefit from these global trends.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Joint research with international partners
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Technology audits to identify scientific strengths in a country’s research institutes, firms, and universities will provide a starting point for planning and promoting both joint research with industry (domestic and foreign) and joint research with other international partners (such as research centers and universities). Managers of the industry-university/institute interface need to gain on-the-job experience as well as formal training.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Staff of research institutes in a developing country will need coaching and on-the-job experience in negotiation strategies and techniques, including negotiating with strategic partners and protecting intellectual property assets. Assistance is needed for institutes to negotiate joint R&D contracts with foreign companies, especially multinational firms, or investment deals. Because typically research institutes and universities in developing countries have been largely operating in a “commercial vacuum” isolated from global markets, they need help to establish corporate relationships and research networks in order to obtain fair and equable contracts for outsourced corporate R&D.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Joint research with industry and industrial internships should help to market the capabilities of a developing country’s scientists and research institutions. Developing linkages between local research institutes and domestic and international firms and research partners can be an effective marketing tool. Having a demanding customer or strategic partner is an important asset – it can be a source of finance, a window to the world of cutting edge technology, a source of product certification, a link to global markets and global market intelligence, and a potential source of investment. Consequently, financing a portion of the initial cost of establishing these links may be an important public policy objective.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Financial, legal, and other forms of commercial/technical support are needed for face-to-face meetings with institute scientists and R&D personnel in domestic and foreign firms to create effective technology transfer and commercialization partnerships. (For example, it needs to be understood that presenting a finished technology to a potential corporate partner is frequently less important to the partner then the expertise which lies behind the technology).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A critical issue in negotiations with industry partners will be the sharing of IP. It will be especially important to determine who owns IP created in a developing country if government budget money was used to support the research partnership. If the government retains ownership, this could deter potential partnerships. Resolving this issue in a “commercially friendly” way is an important re-requisite for the success of this program.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Commercialization planning assistance is typically needed. For example, too much emphasis is frequently placed on the scientific aspects of the technology itself rather than explaining how the technology can solve the customer’s problems or discussing possible markets for the technology or underlying research expertise.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If a developing country can overcome the barriers (which need to identified in each case), its scientists can take advantage of an apparent trend of R&D becoming more distributed, or “going horizontal” with products being developed by collaborative networks rather than individual companies.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Scientists and support staff need training in corporate intelligence. Not all scientists are sufficiently aware of the current state of research or technology applications in companies – and may believe their research results to be new when in fact they are already well known to a potential partner firm or research institute. This lack of knowledge can be damaging to the image of an institute; companies or partners may be led to believe that there is little of value to them in a developing country’s R&D institutes.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">These joint research programs can be modeled after similar programs that have worked successfully in other countries. Under the terms of these programs, the foreign participant would generally be expected to fund all its own expenses. Institutions in developing countries do not have the funds to finance their share of the joint research project. Support would be used to defray these costs. In designing these programs, special care will be needed to develop clear, transparent eligibility criteria and systems to ensure accountability for the use of funds.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An expert panel composed of impartial in-country and foreign experts should be established to review and approve grant applications. Several foreign programs such as the Civilian Research and Defense Foundation’s (CRDF) First Steps to Market grants have already devised publicly available guidelines, eligibility criteria, application procedures, review procedures, audit procedures, standardized legal documents, and IPR protection procedures.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> This program will help to answer the question “why [insert name of country].” If you can choose research partners from all around the world, why would you choose this developing country? Unfortunately, a particular developing country not yet “on the map” as a desirable location for many companies looking for sources of contract research, or as a potential source of commercially viable technologies. Until the answer to this question is self-evident to research managers around the world, a developing country needs to spend some money encouraging people to look for research partners for the developing country. By announcing this program in scientific and business publications, the mere announcement will help to publicize the fact that science in the developing country is open to the world. These matching grant programs, therefore, should be seen as an investment in marketing.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Note that these programs will not need as much peer review as other the grant programs, since the fact that a legitimate foreign partner is involved will act as some sort of de facto quality control.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Additional external links
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Produced by: Innovation Associates, Inc. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Commercialization Needs of Small Business Innovation Research Firms **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The survey findings show that most SBIR firms need business, technical, and financial services, and believe these services are very important to develop and commercialize SBIR results. The survey findings suggest that SBIR policy and program initiatives that assist SBIR firms in marketing, corporate partnering, commercialization planning, patenting and licensing, and other business and technical areas are important in promoting SBIR commercialization. Moreover, survey findings suggest that some financial support and assistance in obtaining private investment for SBIR commercialization, particularly for very small firms, may help promote SBIR results.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**An Assessment of the (US) SBIR Program** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11989#description] Free pdf download of the entire book.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The SBIR program allocates 2.5 percent of 11 federal agencies' extramural R&D budgets to fund R&D projects by small businesses, providing approximately $2 billion annually in competitive awards. At the request of Congress, the National Academies conducted a comprehensive study of how the SBIR program has stimulated technological innovation and used small businesses to meet federal research and development needs. Drawing substantially on new data collection, this report provides a comprehensive overview of the SBIR program at the five agencies representing 96 percent of program expenditure-- DOD, NIH, NSF, DOE, and NASA--and makes recommendations on improvements to the program.

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 * Overview of the NSF SBIR Program (download full file)**


 * A brief History of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.
 * NSF SBIR Demographics
 * Program Organization and Structure
 * Descriptive Overview of the NSF's SBIR Structure
 * NSF SBIR Success Stories