The General Services Administration (GSA) is looking to establish a multi-agency contract as it moves into its latest initiative under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, a top GSA Federal official said on Tuesday.
Speaking on Oct. 29 at the SAIC 2024 OutFront conference produced by MeriTalk, Christopher Bennethum, the assistant commissioner of Assisted Acquisition Services (AAS) at GSA, said that the agency – in partnership with the Small Business Administration (SBA) – is looking to help contractors bridge the “valley of death” as the agency heads into Innovation Phase Three.
Innovation Phase Three is the result of the contract vehicle GSA launched in 2022 coined RIO – for Research, Innovation, and Outcomes – which provided agencies with more direct access to technology funded by grants awarded in the final phase of the SBIR program.
“We’re on the forefront of doing some market research to figure out how we can take this phase three ecosystem and put a multi-agency contract in place to make it easier for agencies across the board to tap into, find, and access these new technologies,” said Bennethum. “It’s so you don’t have to hunt and peck, and we get the benefit of sharing easily, and people can easily access these new technologies.”
Established by the Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982, SBIR provides non-dilutive funding for small technology companies to commercialize their offerings. AAS began awarding and managing SBIR contracts in 2018 to transition into phase three of the program which pursues the actual commercialization objectives of the program.
Phase one and two focused on the development of a proof-of-concept and the research and development efforts of businesses.
“GSA entered that SBIR acquisition space […] because of that valley of death,” said Bennethum. “If you’re a company and you’re really good on the concept and the proof of concept, then you actually have to sell it […] we’re making a real impact for the business infrastructure and the technology infrastructure, bringing new technology into government faster to solve our complex challenges today.”
The next phase includes rethinking commercialization and focuses on how to help businesses get their early technology prototypes to compete in the government marketplace.
“We’re thinking about more commercialization versus the SBA definition of commercialization, which is you can sell your company,” said Bennethum. “There’s many different definitions of commercialization, but we’re trying to figure out how they can actually compete in the government marketplace, versus having a sole source for the SBIR program.”
Speaking at the same event, Justin Fanelli, chief technology officer of the U.S. Navy, said that successful acquisitions of new technologies means that agencies must be willing to shut down some legacy systems and technologies.
“Phase threes don’t happen unless you can turn something all the way off,” said Fanelli. “It’s three to ten times harder to turn something off than you’ll expect it to be, but you’ve either done it or haven’t.”
