9/9/2009
How the SBIR Program Got Its Start
by Rebecca Norman, Graduate Assistant, UALR Lead Center
The late Senator Edward (Ted) M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Warren Rudman (R-NH) each played key roles in providing the necessary congressional support to establish the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The SBIR program was original proposed by Roland Tibbetts of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Milton Stewart, Chief Counsel for Advocacy for the Small Business Administration (SBA) in the mid 1970s, but it required congressional support in order to be incorporated into federal agency programs.
At the time of its proposal, SBIR was a unique and risky idea that would not be readily accepted by the congress. In the 1970s, Senator Kennedy was chairman of the NSF Subcommittee of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, and he worked to ensure that a percentage of the NSF budget be directed to the research efforts of small businesses. In 1977, the NSF instituted the SBIR program. Senator Kennedy and Senator Warren Rudman worked across the aisle in bipartisan fashion to secure a bill that would integrate the SBIR program with all government agencies involved in research. In July 1982, the Congress passed and the president signed the bill, which made the SBIR program government-wide.
In October of 2007, both Kennedy and Rudman received a special Tibbetts SBIR Pioneer Award, a prestigious award reserved for outstanding service to the SBIR community from the earliest days of the program. The congressional support that Senator Kennedy and Senator Rudman brought to the SBIR program was instrumental in helping the program get its start. The SBIR program now serves as an important source of funding for research-based small businesses that are developing state-of-the-art technology.
