RESEARCH RESOURCE
development of prototypes for military- specification
testing by government
scientists. It also allowed for feedback to the company and refinement of the pro- totype, if necessary, thus harnessing the strengths of industry and the expertise of government laboratories and program managers to deliver materiel solutions to the warfighter.
FIELDING AV-RDD PFC Jessica Glover, a 68S preventive medicine specialist at WRAIR, loads the dengue AV-RDD kit into the Medical Equipment Set Entomological Lab. The kit is the outgrowth of an SBIR initiative begun in 2003. (Photo by MAJ Vanessa R. Melanson, WRAIR)
Many small businesses need assistance and incorporation into the strategic vision of an RDT&E program, such as the MERP, to ensure the proper over- sight. “Unless you add SBIRs into the overall program, you can’t get that hand- holding to the small companies that may need it,” said Coleman. “But by thinking strategically and making it part of your core program, you can do this. It used to frustrate the heck out of me, when I’d hear briefings by various program managers and there would be no discus- sion about SBIR efforts. Tey should be considered part of our core program and briefed as part of our core program, but they were outliers.”
One way to mitigate this type of risk to USAMRMC laboratories is through the SBIR program, the beauty of which is that a small business may already have a potential solution to a real, operational need, or a great idea for one; all it needs is funding to do the research that could prove the solution. By initiating a topic, as with the AV-RDD program, the SBIR opens the door to potential solutions by telling small businesses of the need and asking them to fill it.
Te SBIR program aims to preserve pro- spective products as projects move from tech-base to advanced development, using a series of well-defined checks and balances. As the example of the AV-RDD topics illustrates, SBIR program topics are specific and address well-articulated user requirements. By the time a project
122 Army AL&T Magazine April–June 2014
begins in Phase I, much of the critical thinking on operational need has been done. As the project matures and success- fully completes milestones, it moves into the Phase II process with the potential for follow-on Phase II enhancement or Phase III funding.
LESSONS LEARNED As MERP officials have learned, an SBIR Phase I contract doesn’t necessar- ily guarantee accomplishment of the desired program without guidance and support from the program managers. When Coleman was head of the MERP, he established an understanding between the government scientists and the SBIR companies to ensure that for every SBIR contract awarded, core RDT&E dollars went to government scientists. Tis type of partnership facilitated the
Te AV-RDD program faced this issue of supporting small business during the development of the malaria AV-RDD. Te company developed the product in 2003, but found there was little profit in production and closed operations in 2005. For nearly two years, the malaria AV-RDD was unavailable to warfighters until another company picked up the development and fielding of the prod- uct—through the SBIR program.
CONCLUSION With the successful development and fielding of AV-RDDs through the SBIR program, personnel in all the services can perform the VPD mission. AV-RDDs make it possible to determine if, say, 90 percent of an area of operation poses no vector-borne disease threat,
thereby
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