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AIR FORCE SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH
TECHNOLOGY ACCELERATION PROGRAM
SBIR TAP
SBIR TAP is a pilot program that assembles companies
that have received SBIR contracts from the federal
government. The program supports these small
businesses in assessing the commercial viability of
their technology, creating actionable commercialization
plans, and seeking investment capital. The pilot
program, launched in FY 2015, is provided at no cost to
participants.
The program addresses technologies with an
opportunity to impact commercial market areas such as:
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Big Data: data warehousing, management, analytics
• Cyber Security
• Energy: storage and generation
• Environmental Monitoring
• Health Care
• Human Performance Enhancement: sense, assess, augment
• Internet of Things
• Personalized Learning
• Precision Agriculture
• Automated Transportation
Each interested small business receives a brief overview
of the SBIR technology and participates in a 15-minute
introductory interview to discuss the program details.
Further discussions may follow the interview. The final
selection of participants is made by a panel from the
Air Force SBIR program office based on the following
criteria:
Participants attend 18 hours of training over the course
of six weeks. The program consists of six engaging,
fast-paced and highly relevant work sessions, facilitated
by certified instructors. Companies receive training
based on the Wendy Kennedy “So what? Who cares?
Why you?” approach to commercial success. Each
program is developed around the unique small business
teams and their technologies – no “cookie cutter”
approaches are used. Participants develop actionable
and specific commercialization plans, aligned with the
existing support services and organizations so that
commercialization assistance continues after their Air
Force SBIR contract formally ends.
In FY 2015 the program had 18 participants, all of
whom received Phase II awards. One participant, based
in Montana, was introduced to a manufacturer in
Springfield, Ohio, via the program and now sources its
products through them.
In FY 2016, 42 small busineses were interviewed. Many
of these companies plan to submit Phase II proposals.
Four companies had real commercial interest, or the
strong desire to commercialize their technologies. The
SBIR TAP program continues to work with them.
If the pilot continues to yield successful results in
assisting small businesses, it may be deployed more
broadly in the future.
For more information, visit: http://sbirtap.com
• Alignment of small business research with Air Force
SBIR TAP technology commercialization focus areas;
• Assessment of the commercialization potential of
the SBIR technology;
• Small business willingness and ability to attend and
actively engage in all six work sessions.
The SBIR TAP program provides approximately 30 SBIR
award recipients with a customized support program,
designed to accelerate the commercialization of SBIR
technologies into new market spaces. Participants
use visual tools and models structured around nine
questions to identify the business value inside a science
or technology innovation.
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