Clara Asmail
National Institute of Standards and Technology, SBIR Program Manager, Gaithersburg, MD

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has pioneered a new methodology for U.S. small businesses to spin-out commercially-viable technologies emerging from NIST’s focused research. Using its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program funds, NIST incentivizes small U.S. companies to create financially rewarding innovations by researching and developing NIST-originated technologies with the goal of transitioning NIST intramural research into the market. The goal of transitioning research to the commercial market is also the goal of federal technology transfer programs. The use of SBIR funds to achieve federal technology transfer is a novel systematic approach to merging these two complementary infrastructures in order to leverage the advantages of each program for synergistic growth.