Small business initiative

Abstract

In mid 1993, the DOE Defense Programs initiated the Small Business Initiative (SBI) which was designed to provide technical support to the Nation`s small businesses. The initial participating facilities were Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant, and Sandia National Laboratory. The Allied-Signal Kansas City Plant and the Savannah River Site came on board, later. The program was designed to keep the DOE-DP technical skills honed, to maintain baseline technology capabilities vital to safeguarding the nation into the 21st century, and to share technical resources with the small business community. The approach utilized to accomplish this was to establish mutually beneficial technology partnerships with small businesses that could leverage advanced technologies and improve the US position in the global economy. Through the fourth quarter of FY96, $3.819M of $4.002M of SBI funds were costed. Four hundred fifty-four technical assistance requests were received during the year and 438 were completed. Total reported private sector impact resulting from technical assistance for the FY was $184M. Six new SBI Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA) were initiated during the year. Nine new user agreements were signed during the year. The Tennessee Governor`s School for Manufacturing, the first of its kind in the nation, was conducted during June and July.