Small Business Research Programs: Reporting on Award Timeliness Could Be Enhanced
Fast Facts
Agencies that participate in the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs have helped small businesses bring new technologies to market—such as a low-cost, energy-efficient alternative to fluorescent lights.
However, agencies do not always make these awards on time. This can be a problem for small businesses because they rely on timely issuance of these awards to plan their work.
We recommended that the Small Business Administration (which oversees these programs) enhance reporting on award timeliness by issuing its annual reports in a more timely way and providing real-time data on its website.
Timeliness of Small Business Research Awards, 2016-2021
Highlights
What GAO Found
Agencies’ timeliness rates for issuance of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards remained similar from fiscal year 2020 to 2021. Agencies’ timeliness performance for award issuance has improved for both programs overall since fiscal year 2016. This is the case government-wide, although defense agencies have lagged behind civilian agencies in their performance (see figure). View the full results of GAO’s analysis here.
Civilian and Department of Defense Award Timeliness, Fiscal Years 2016-2021
Note: Civilian agencies exclude the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, which have different award notification and issuance time frames.
Government-wide, the programs’ participating agencies have more consistently met the required time frames for notifying awardees than the recommended time frames for issuing awards. The Department of Defense’s (DOD) timeliness relies on the performance of the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, which together issued 83 percent of all defense-related awards for fiscal year 2021. DOD issued 65 percent of its awards on time from fiscal year 2016 through fiscal year 2021 compared with 85 percent by civilian agencies.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) is required to annually report agency award timeliness data to Congress along with other information about participating agencies’ implementation of the SBIR and STTR programs. However, SBA has been consistently late with its annual reports from FY 2016 to FY 2021—between 6 to 16 months late. Without a comprehensive, documented analysis of its process for developing these annual reports, it is unclear whether SBA is missing opportunities to take action to improve the timeliness of its required reports. Additionally, SBA is missing opportunities to provide real-time award timeliness data on its website. While SBA is not required to do so, providing current award timeliness data on its website would offer an alternative source of information to Congress and the public about agencies’ performance in meeting award time frames and could spur further improvements.
Why GAO Did This Study
Agencies participating in the SBIR and STTR programs awarded nearly $3 billion to small businesses in fiscal year 2021. Small businesses rely on timely issuance of these awards to plan, develop, and commercialize new technologies. In its oversight role for the two programs, SBA sets timeliness standards for award notification and issuance. SBA is mandated to report annually to Congress on overall outcomes for both programs including award timeliness.
The fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act included a provision for GAO to review the timeliness of award notification and issuance. This report, GAO’s fourth, examines, among other objectives, agencies’ timeliness in award notification and issuance and trends from fiscal year 2016 through 2021, and the extent to which SBA reports on agencies’ award timeliness.
GAO analyzed SBIR and STTR award data, administered a questionnaire to all 29 participating agencies, and reviewed participating agency and SBA documentation. GAO also interviewed SBA officials and conducted follow-up interviews with officials at other agencies as needed to clarify information they provided.
Recommendations
GAO is recommending that SBA (1) identify and implement actions to improve timely issuance of its annual report and (2) add SBIR and STTR award timeliness data to its website. SBA concurred with these recommendations.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Small Business Administration |
Priority Rec.
The Administrator of the Small Business Administration should develop, document, and execute a plan to (1) identify actions that could improve timely publication of its annual report to Congress, and (2) implement the actions identified. (Recommendation 1) |
SBA concurred with this recommendation. In August 2023, SBA described some steps taken to implement it including timely collection of agency award data, efforts to review all parts of the process, and convening an annual meeting with agency representatives to discuss opportunities to streamline the annual report. As of March 2024, according to SBA, it had assessed its annual report processes and was working to publish all SBIR/STTR annual reports, including the fiscal year 2023 report by September 30, 2024. We will reassess the status of this recommendation when SBA provides additional information on its implementation.
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| Small Business Administration | The Administrator of the Small Business Administration should add information on award timeliness to the public online award database. (Recommendation 2) |
SBA concurred with this recommendation. In October 2023, SBA informed GAO that it had added timeliness data points on the SBIR.gov online award database. The SBIR.gov award data files now contain the required fields to calculate award timeliness for individual awards or for an agency or branch. SBA has also provided information on calculating award timeliness on the Data Resource Page. Furthermore, SBA updated its requirements for agencies' data submissions to include the following dates for each award: solicitation close date, proposal receipt date, and date of notification. GAO reviewed the SBIR.gov website and available data and determined that SBA has implemented this recommendation.
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