Research institution (SBIR and STTR)

In SBIR and STTR, a research institution is a nonprofit institution, such as a university, or a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) that has a place of business in the United States and either operates primarily there or makes a significant contribution to the U.S. economy.

How it works in a university-industry collaboration

The definition comes from the SBA Policy Directive (§3(cc)), which takes "nonprofit institution" from the Stevenson-Wydler Act. NIH's examples are universities, nonprofit hospitals, other nonprofit research organizations, and FFRDCs, and it describes the STTR partner as "a single, non-profit research institution" (NIH Grants Policy Statement 18.5). A for-profit lab doesn't qualify.

The institution never applies. The small business does, and pays the institution's share through a subaward.

How does the rule differ between SBIR and STTR?

• STTR requires a research institution partner. It performs at least 30% of the work and the small business at least 40%, with no deviations. The two sign an allocation of rights agreement before award, and the PI's primary employment may be with the institution, subject to agency rules.
• SBIR doesn't require one. A university can be a subcontractor, sharing up to one-third of the effort in Phase I and up to one-half in Phase II with any other subcontractors and consultants, and the PI must be primarily employed by the small business.

What Helikon does with it

Research institutions have organization profile pages that show each organization's top research areas, the most cited researchers active in the last five years for each of their top research subfields, researchers at the org matched to your profile, the org's top publications and patents, and any public partnerships that the org already has.

The Partner search tab on the Helikon platform matches researchers to your specific aims, and the Funding tab on a researcher's profile shows whether they've been a research-institution partner on a small-business award before.