Programs Designed to Help Small Businesses Commercialize Devices Invented by NASA, DOD, and Other Federal Agencies: A Case History

Government interest in small business is not new, but there is a new direction for Government attention-high-technology developments, which are aimed at commercialization of the resulting new products and services. The set of new initiatives covers a variety of incentives and direct funding mechanisms, most of which are too new to evaluate. The result is an unparalled opportunity for entrepreneurs with engineering or scientific backgrounds and ideas for new enterprises to receive support from Government sources, as well as the more traditional private-capital sources. The nature of current Government efforts and the likely future evolution of these programs will be explored in this paper, and an example of how they work will be provided from Viking Instruments Corporation.