Alan C. O’Connor

This book presents an in-depth investigation into small business research activity supported by the U. S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Albert N. Link and Alan C. O’Connor explain the historical importance of small firms to the NIH and conduct insightful analysis of the Institutes and Centers funded through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Exploring prominent Institutes within the NIH and using data from the SBIR program, they discuss innovation and social benefits associated with the NIH’s Institutes and Centers. Topics covered include commercialization success, patenting activities of firms, and correlations between diversity measures and various performance metrics. Ultimately, the book delineates the success of the firms that receive awards from the SBIR, and these firms' abilities to support technological development. Small Business Innovation in the Public Interest is an invaluable resource for academics, researchers and students across health policy and economics, entrepreneurship, biotechnology and innovation. Policymakers working in the health industry will also find the insights into innovation funding beneficial.

Case Studies of Successful Technology Transfer from Federal Laboratories presents a case study protocol and analyses of nine technology transfer success stories across federal agencies and their research laboratories to begin to fill a gap in the existing literature where there is less available research on the impact and the mechanisms of technology transfer from federal labs. The goal is to present a methodology for doing case studies of technology transfer from federal laboratories and showcase a group of case studies done using that methodology. In addition to providing rich insights into different technology transfer processes, analysis across case studies with the same methodology allows one to begin to draw conclusions about similarities and differences in the mechanisms and conditions leading to successful technology transfer from national laboratories.

Escalating energy demand may be the most important issue facing the United States and the world today. There is little disagreement that research and development (R&D) is needed to develop new energy technologies for the future; however, there is less agreement over the specific research agenda to be pursued and how that agenda is funded. This book addresses the social importance of new energy technologies, illustrates policy-relevant applications of evaluation techniques and proposes new perspectives for a US energy investment strategy. Through detailed examples related to solar, geothermal, and vehicle technologies, the authors outline the need for robust evaluation methods to document social returns to taxpayers' R&D investments. They argue that such evaluations are necessary for the public sector to make rational decisions about the allocation of its scares resources. The evaluation methods considered involve developing alternative technology and market pathways from which the benefits of government research can be measured. Researchers and graduate students, policy makers involved in energy technology, and energy R&D program managers will all find much of value in this important and timely book.