Date: Jan 01, 1997 Source: idi records
Dr. Arthur Obermayer was a pioneer in preparing the way for the Small Business Innovation Program initially. As Vice President of the American Association of Small Research Companies in 1975 and as a President of Moleculon Research Company, a Massachusetts high tech organization, Dr. Obermayer told his Senator, Ted Kennedy, that after years of effort and frustration, the small, high technology firm community believed that the only way small firms would obtain a fair share of government R&D was for Congress to legislate an increase. Small companies had received only about 3.5% of federal R&D for many years, in spite of the obvious value and competence of these firms best demonstrated in Silicon Valley and Massachusetts Route 128 area.
Senator Kennedy was successful in having a sentence inserted into the NSF's budget in 1976 that required NSF to spend 7.5% of its Research Applied to National Needs (RANN) program with small business firms. This was equivalent to about 1% of NSF's budget. In 1977, the percentage was increased to 10% of the RANN budget. It stimulated NSF to initiate a newly designed SBIR program aimed at attracting quality research proposals. NSF's constituency opposed SBIR, and Dr. Obermayer and Milton Stewart, SBA's chief Counsel for Advocacy, met with the director of OMB in 1977 and 1978 to protect the program from internal axe at NSF. Then in January 1978, Arthur Obermayer requested and was permitted to provide testimony to the House Science and Technology Committee supporting the SBIR program, the first Congressional testimony specific in supporting SBIR. Prophetically he stated, "This program could potentially be the most significant government program of this century in the field of science and technology." His message to Congress was then reprinted in Chem Tech Magazine and presented at the International Conference on Technological Innovation at The Hague, and at Panel on Applications of Science and Technology of the COngressional Office of Technology Assessment.
At the beginning of 1979, Dr. Judith Obermayer joined with Dr. Arthur Obermayer in promoting the SBIR program. They testified at many Congressional hearings, wrote articles and reports explaining its potential role, and helped the Congress draft legislation to make the NSF program government-wide. At the White House Conference on Small Business in 1980, they focused on getting the SBIR program accepted as a top legislative priority of small business. Then they became co-presidents of the National Association for Small Business Innovation, an organization specifically formed to lobby for the passage of legislation making SBIR government-wide. At this time, the SBIR bill was very controversial. The academic community did not want to share the government R&D pie with small business, and government agencies did not want to be forced by Congress to make awards to small business. In fact, there were two full days of heated debate in the House of Representatives prior to the vote in 1982.
Moleculon Research Company, with Arthur Obermayer as President and Judith Obermayer as Board Chair, received two of the first 42 Phase I NSF awards in 1977, followed by two Phase II awards in 1978. THey received a number of additional grants and contracts, in following years. THen they started a commercially-oriented spin off in 1982, which went public in 1984, received a $31 million investment in 1987 from an Australian pharmaceutical company, which finally bought their entire interest in the spin off in 1988.
Both continue to promote the SBIR program, and Dr. Judith Obermayer actively assists companies in its effective utilization.
