A DoDSmall Business Innovation Research program within the military departments supports weapons system development but better data is needed on the extent of technology transition from research to development and production, GAO has said.
DoD spends over $1 billion annually to support SBIR awards, but GAO said it was unable to assess the extent of technology transition associated with the military department SBIR programs because comprehensive and reliable technology transition data for SBIR projects are not collected.
Transition data systems used by DoD provide some transition information but have significant gaps in coverage and data reliability concerns, and SBIR transition reporting requirements recently established by Congress have led DoD to evaluate its options for providing transition data, according to GAO-14-96.
DoD initially plans to use transition data from Company Commercialization Reportsto meet new transition reporting requirements, although SBIR officials feel that addressing transition-reporting requirements is a longer-term effort, and there is no specific plan including a time line for when DoD will be able to support those requirements, GAO said.
DoD partly agreed with recommendations to establish a common definition of technology transition for SBIR projects, develop a plan to track transition that will improve the completeness, quality, and reliability of transition data, and report to Congress its plan for meeting new SBIR technology transition reporting requirements.
