Innovation New Jersey
  • Home
  • Our Coalition
    • Contact Us
  • News
  • Resources
    • State Supports
    • Federal Supports
    • Higher Ed Supports
  • Join Us

Innovation News

Everything Innovation. Everything New Jersey.
Follow us and stay connected.

Study: What Publicly Funded R&D Projects Fail?

3/24/2015

0 Comments

 
Washington D.C. – The State Science & Technology Institute (SSTI) highlighted the a recent study on publicly funding programs: “SBIR projects are less likely to fail if research teams are smaller, have more experience and include women investigators, according to a new working paper by Albert N. Link and Mike Wright. The authors also found that larger SBIR awards lower the chances that a project will be discontinued before completion. While the study focuses on projects supported through federal SBIR programs, the findings could have implications for other kinds of public R&D support."

Link"and Wright reviewed data from 1,878 Phase II projects funded through the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs at the Departments of Defense and Energy, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and NASA. Of those projects, about a third failed, meaning they were not completed and were discontinued by the research team. A variety of reasons were given for these failure. The most common (24 percent of cases) was that the potential market for the new technology was too small. Another 15 percent reported that insufficient funding was available to complete the project, and 14 percent said that technical problems stood in the way.

An analysis of demographic data revealed a number of factors that contribute to the failure of research projects. First, teams with less experience are less likely to successfully complete their project. Specifically, teams without SBIR experience in R&D projects directly related to the technology being funded are more likely to fail. Second, teams receiving smaller awards are more likely to fail. This could be due to financing difficulties or the fact that riskier projects were given less support. Third, larger firms were more likely to fail, which Link and Wright attribute to a lack of flexibility in handling the unexpected turns of a long-term R&D project. Finally, projects with a female principal investigator (PI) were less likely to fail. The authors abstain from offering a theory about the success of women PIs.

Link and Wright acknowledge that more research is needed, and additional data on the backgrounds of PIs lead to more useful research. However, they suggest that since experience appears to play a key role in the success of research projects, mentoring programs could have a big impact on future projects. Experienced SBIR researchers could be paired with current teams in their knowledge area to pass on valuable information about project planning, budgeting and market assessment.

If mentoring is an effective practice in lowering the likelihood of failure, state and regional SBIR programs could play a key role in supporting research teams by connecting them to the right people. This could also prove useful in non-SBIR research projects funded by state programs."

Download On the Failure of R&D Projects: https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/uncgec/2015_003.html.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Do not miss a single innovative moment and sign up for our newsletter!
    Weekly updates


    Categories

    All
    3D Printing
    Academia
    Acquisitions
    Aerospace
    Agriculture
    AIDS
    Algae
    Alumni
    Animals
    Architecture
    Astrophysics
    Autism
    Awards
    Big Data
    Bioethics
    Biofuel
    Biomedical
    BioNJ
    Bioterrorism
    Bit Coins
    Brain Health
    Business
    Camden
    Cancer
    CCollege
    Cellular
    Centenary
    Chemistry
    ChooseNJ
    Climate Change
    Clinical Trials
    Cloud Tech
    Collaboration
    Computing
    Congress
    Coriell
    Council On Innovation
    Crowdfunding
    Cybersecurity
    DARPA
    Defense
    Degree
    Dementia
    Dental Health
    DOC
    DOD
    DOE
    Drew
    Drones
    Drug Creation
    Einstein's Alley
    Electricity
    Energy
    Engineering
    Entrepreneurship
    Environmental
    FAA
    Fairleigh Dickinson
    FDA
    Federal Budget
    Federal Government
    Federal Labs
    Federal Program
    Finance
    Food Science
    Fort Monmouth
    Fuel Cells
    Funding
    Genome
    Geography
    Geology
    Global Competition
    Google
    Governor Christie
    Grant
    Hackensack
    HackensackUMC
    Healthcare
    Health Care
    HHS
    HINJ
    Hospitals
    Immigration
    Incubator
    Infrastructure
    International
    Internet
    Investor
    IoT
    IP
    IT
    Jobs
    Johnson & Johnson
    K-12
    Kean
    Kessler
    Legislation
    Logistics
    Manufacturing
    Medical Devices
    Med School
    Mental Health
    Mentor
    Microorganisms
    Molecular Biology
    Montclair
    NAS
    Neuroscience
    Newark
    New Jersey
    NIFA
    NIH
    NIST
    NJBDA
    NJBIA
    NJ Chemistry Council
    NJCU
    NJDOLWD
    NJEDA
    NJEDge
    NJHF
    NJII
    NJIT
    NJMEP
    NJPAC
    NJPRO
    NJTC
    Nonprofit
    NSF
    OpEd
    Open Data
    OSHE
    OSTP
    Parasite
    Patents
    Paterson
    Patients
    Perth Amboy
    Pharma
    POTUS
    PPPL
    Princeton
    Prosthetics
    Ranking
    Rare Disease
    R&D Council
    Report
    Resiliency
    Rider
    Robotics
    Rowan
    Rutgers
    SBA
    Seton Hall
    Siemens
    Smart Car
    Smart Cities
    Software
    Solar
    Space
    SSTI
    Startup
    State Government
    STEM
    Stevens
    Stockton
    Subatomic
    Supports
    Sustainability
    Taxes
    TCNJ
    Teachers
    Telecom
    Therapy
    Thermodynamics
    Transportation
    Undergraduate
    USEDA
    Verizon
    Video Game
    Virtual Reality
    Water
    WHO
    William Paterson
    Women In STEM
    Workforce Development

Home   Coalition   News   Resources   Events   Join Us
Picture
Innovation New Jersey Coalition
10 West Lafayette Street
Trenton, NJ 08608-2002
609-858-9507