Michael Braukus

Headquarters, Washington, DC

(Phone: 202/358-1979)

RELEASE: C00-i

NASA has selected 110 promising research proposals from 97
firms in 27 states for negotiation of phase-2 contract awards for
its Small Business Innovative Research program. The total value of
the awards is expected to be more than $66 million.

A total of 267 proposals were submitted by contractors completing
phase-1 projects as part of their 1999 awards. All proposals were
peer reviewed for both technical merit and commercial potential.

Phase-2 continues development of the most promising projects
selected from the first phase of the competition. Selection
criteria include scientific and technical merit, future importance
and eventual value of the innovation to NASA, company capabilities
and commercial potential.

The goals of the SBIR program are to stimulate technological
innovation, increase the use of small business (including women-
owned and disadvantaged firms) in meeting federal research and
development needs, and increase private sector commercialization
of federally funded research results. Eight of the companies being
announced today are disadvantaged firms and 12 are women-owned
firms.

The NASA SBIR Program Management Office is located at Goddard
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, with executive oversight by
NASA’s Office of Aerospace Technology, NASA Headquarters,
Washington, DC. Individual SBIR projects are managed by NASA’s
field centers.

A listing of the selected companies can be found on the Internet
at: http://sbir.nasa.gov