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Science 3 July 2009:
Vol. 325. no. 5936, p. 18
DOI: 10.1126/science.325_18
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News of the Week

SBIR Program:

Researchers Fight Against Bigger Slice to Small Business

Jeffrey Mervis

A coalition of U.S. scientific societies and university organizations is urging Congress not to expand a $2 billion research program for small businesses. To succeed, however, the coalition must overcome one of the most influential interest groups in Washington and mend fences with legislators still smarting from a recent tweak to the program. Science lobbyists argue that increasing the set-aside for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program would take too big a bite out of the government's overall research budget. They are especially concerned about its impact on the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which runs the second-largest SBIR program after the Department of Defense. NIH has seen a sharp drop in the number of SBIR applications, and its officials are worried that expanding the program could force it to fund low-quality projects.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A Translational Research Niche for Small Business Innovation Research Grants.
K. Handelsman (2009)
Science Translational Medicine 1, 5cm6
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)