Technology Maturity in NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program

Abstract

We study the technology readiness levels (TRLs) of projects funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program from two perspectives: (1) program management and the distribution of technology maturities and (2) inconsistencies between the principal investigator (PI) and NASA in determining the actual maturity. We find that NASA funds technologies almost independent of the initial TRL, but that in the initial funding round, standard small businesses (6--499 employees) are funded almost 20% more frequently than so-called microfirms (1--5 employees). These differences largely disappear in Phase II, and firms of all sizes are equally likely to be funded, with technologies at all levels of maturity. In addition, the PI and NASA's representative disagree on the technology's status approximately 20% of the time in preparing for project continuation; this represents one of the few measurements of behavioral biases measured ``in the wild.'' This analysis has important contributions to the literature on technology management and risk assessment.