Winslow Sargeant, chief counsel for advocacy at the U.S.
Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, was on campus this week for
a roundtable discussion with entrepreneurs and researchers about the regulatory
and bureaucratic barriers, and funding limitations that can keep good inventions
stuck in the laboratory. The discussion was hosted by the von Liebig Center forEntrepreneurism and Technology Advancement and CONNECT.
“Research is the transformation of money into knowledge.
Innovation is the transformation of knowledge into money in the form of
companies, products and services,” said Sargeant. “We want you to make it to
the other side,” he added, referencing the dreaded valley of death, where many
an innovative idea has died due to lack of resources and funding.
Several challenges were raised during the discussion,
including dwindling federal and state funding for research and
commercialization via the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program (combined
with increased competition for those dollars), mismatched priorities between
the kind of research that federal agencies fund and the needs of the medical
community, and the funding process by which proposals are reviewed, which
several in attendance described as “broken.”
The uncertainty about funding for research is creating a
discouraging environment for undergraduate and graduate students considering
whether to pursue a doctorate degree, which several attendees agreed could be
“devastating” at the junior faculty level over the long-term. Sargeant said
this trend is especially problematic. “If we’re encouraging young people to go
into STEM fields, there has to be a pathway. There can’t be a valley of death
for the entrepreneur and scientist,” he said.
Solutions were also proposed. Among them: shortening the
review cycle for Small Business Innovation Research grants from nine months or
more to three to five months; providing more education and training to
individuals who review the SBIR funding proposals; a mentoring program to help
less experienced entrepreneurs compete for this type of funding; and a pre-proposal
process to weed out and provide feedback to researchers whose ideas need more
work. Attendees also recommended changing
an SBIR rule that requires the principal investigator on any grant to be
primarily employed (more than 50 percent of the time) by the company. The requirement often means faculty members or
researchers need to leave the university – and the health care and other
benefits it provides – to pursue a highly risky venture.
Sargeant is currently traveling around the country visiting
with business leaders, inventors and entrepreneurs about the challenges that
may be impeding the growth of small businesses. As chief counsel for advocacy
at the SBA, Sargeant advocates for policies that support the growth and
development of small businesses. The von Liebig Center at UC San Diego Jacobs
School of Engineering provides proof of concept funding and advisory services
to accelerate the commercialization of university research throughout Southern
California.
