U.S. General Services Administration
GSA Announces Launch of Small Business Innovation Research Program Phase III Pilot
Washington, D.C. — The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) today announced it is launching a pilot program to award and manage Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III contracts. Awards will be made and managed by GSA’s Office of Assisted Acquisition Services (AAS) during the pilot, which will run through September 2019.
The SBIR program is a highly competitive awards-based program coordinated by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) that encourages domestic small businesses to explore their research/research and development (R/R&D) potential and provides an incentive for them to profit from its commercialization. The program is structured in three phases; Phases I and II focus on R/R&D, while Phase III’s objective is to pursue commercialization objectives resulting from Phase I/II R/R&D activities.
“GSA’s SBIR pilot is an exciting opportunity to bring innovative solutions into the federal marketplace, support American small businesses, facilitate job creation and strengthen our industrial base,” said GSA Administrator Emily Murphy. “Awarding SBIR Phase III contracts allows GSA to bring these cutting-edge solutions directly to our partner agencies. This is a great example of how GSA is improving the way federal agencies access and use technology to address complex problems.”
“Helping small businesses commercialize new solutions developed with assistance from the SBIR program increases the return on investment from federal research and development funding and supports private sector job growth,” said SBA Administrator Linda McMahon. “The SBA looks forward to working with GSA to encourage the entrepreneurship and innovation associated with the SBIR program and continuing SBA’s efforts to impact the growth of our nation’s small businesses.”
The pilot will help GSA determine how best to expand this research and commercialization service offering. The pilot will be led by AAS’s Great Lakes Region (Region 5) and AAS’s Federal Systems Integration and Management (FEDSIM) teams. GSA’s Dr. Rodney Couick, who leads the AAS Region 5 team, was recently awarded the Small Business Technology Council’s “2018 Champion of Small Business Technology Commercialization” award for his efforts to support SBIR contracting needs and development of the SBIR pilot program.
“For an organization to thrive, it has to promote a culture of responsible innovation” said GSA’s Senior Procurement Executive Jeffrey Koses. “GSA achieves this by focusing the pilot on SBIR’s commercialization phase. This enables FEDSIM and Region 5, in collaboration with my office, to identify and resolve potential issues and share best practices that will inform our next steps.”
About GSA
The mission of the U.S. General Services Administration is to deliver value and savings in real estate, acquisition, technology, and other mission-support services across government. One of its four strategic objectives is to improve the way federal agencies buy, build and use technology.
About SBIR
The SBIR program was established in statute by the Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982 (P.L. 97-219) and has subsequently been reauthorized by Congress on several occasions over the past 36 years.
The SBIR program is structured in three phases. The objective of Phase I is to establish the technical merit, feasibility, and commercial potential of the proposed research/research & development (R/R&D) efforts and to determine the quality of performance of the small business awardee organization prior to providing further federal support in Phase II. The objective of Phase II is to continue the R/R&D efforts initiated in Phase I. The objective of Phase III, where appropriate, is for the small business to pursue commercialization objectives resulting from the Phase I/II R/R&D activities.
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