11 



There is also a problem with the definition as to what is a dupli- 

 cate proposal. As you know, in the scientific arena what seems du- 

 plicate on the surface may not be when you look behind the various 

 proposal. There needs to be more definition and guidance to the 

 various companies as to what we really mean by duplicate. 



Finally, the last piece is there is not, as I mentioned, an informa- 

 tion system in place that effectively would exchange the informa- 

 tion between the various agencies to tell them who all other agen- 

 cies are providing awards to. SBA does keep a centralized 

 database, but that is mostly for reporting to Congress later on and 

 there is like a 9-month delay in the data. That needs to be cor- 

 rected. There needs to be a more real time process where agencies 

 can go and use that as a clearing house to identify duplicate re- 

 search funding. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



[Mr. Rezendes' statement may be found in the appendix.] 



Chairman Torkildsen. Thank you very much for your testi- 

 mony, Mr. Rezendes, Now Dr. Samuel Barish with the Department 

 of Energy. 



TESTIMONY OF DR. SAMUEL J. BARISH, SBIRySTTR PROGRAM 

 MANAGER, OFFICE OF ENERGY RESEARCH, U.S. DEPART- 

 MENT OF ENERGY 



Dr. Barish. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I 

 am pleased to be here today to discuss the SBIR and STTR Pro- 

 grams of the Department of Energy. 



My name is Sam Barish and I have managed the DOE SBIR Pro- 

 gram for the past 11 years and the STTR Program since its incep- 

 tion in 1993. I am very familiar with research programs with my 

 13 years of experience in high energy physics research. Sitting be- 

 hind me is my colleague, Dr. Robert Berger, who has been invalu- 

 able in running the SBIR and STTR Programs over the past year. 



First I would like to share with the subcommittee some of our 

 experiences in implementing the SBIR Program. The SBIR reau- 

 thorization legislation emphasized the program's goal of increasing 

 private sector commercialization of technology developed through 

 Federal research and development. In this regard, we are very 

 pleased with the assistance in commercialization we have provided 

 to our Phase II awardees, which is unique in the SBIR agencies. 



A large majority of SBIR awardees have excellent skills in 

 science and engineering research, but are relatively new to the 

 business world and lack experience in product development, financ- 

 ing business growth, raising venture capital, and marketing. To 

 meet the primary goal of the SBIR legislation, increasing private 

 sector commercialization of SBIR research, the Department has 

 provided non-SBIR funds to support a three-stage commercializa- 

 tion assistance project for the last 6 years. 



In the first stage, the companies were provided with weekly in- 

 structions and individual advice and counsel over a 4-month period 

 in the preparation of a business plan to potential sponsors. The pri- 

 mary emphasis was on the marketing and financial aspects of the 

 business plan which was critiqued in detail. Very few of the compa- 

 nies had prepared a business plan before. 



