89 



agencies to enter into an agreement with a vendor to provide this 

 assistance. In funding this arrangement, the provision authorizes 

 not more than $4,000 for phase I and $4,000 annually for phase II 

 award recipients. 



QUALITY RESEARCH PROPOSALS 



KEPT PACE WITH INITIAL PROGRAM EXPANSION 



Although it is too early to make a conclusive judgment about 

 the effect of funding increases on the quality of SBIR research 

 proposals receiving awards, the quality of research proposals 

 appears to have kept pace with the program's initial expansion. 



First, the level of competition for awards remained high 

 following the initial increase in funding in fiscal year 1993. In 

 all five major agencies during fiscal year 1993, the number of 

 proposals rose between 9 and 30 percent. These increases were 

 important in maintaining the competitiveness of the program during 

 the first year that the program's funding percentage grew to 1.5 

 percent. In addition, the ratio of awards to proposals within each 

 agency remained fairly constant, ranging from 8 percent (for DOE) 

 to 28 percent (for NIH). Among all five agencies, the data for 

 fiscal year 1993 showed virtually no change in the ratio from the 

 previous 2 years, suggesting that the funding increase exerted no 

 adverse effect on the competitiveness of the program. 



Second, agencies deemed many more proposals worthy of award 

 than they were able to fund. In some agencies, the large number of 

 worthy but unfunded projects greatly exceeded the number of 

 projects receiving awards; for example, the Air Force deemed 1,174 

 proposals worthy of award in fiscal year 1993 but funded only 470. 

 In general, the data showed substantial reserves of projects deemed 

 worthy of funding but receiving no award. In addition, SBIR 

 program officials in the five major agencies stated that, in their 

 view, the quality of research proposals was being maintained or 



