Galois’ CEO, Laura McKinney, was asked to testify before the U.S. Congress Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation on the role of small business in innovation and job creation. The hearing was specifically assessing the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Technology Transfer Research (STTR) programs. Laura provided background on Galois as a small business that transforms computer science research into practice to address urgent problems with safety and security software. She shared with the committee our experience as a technology transition company:
- Expect the unexpected in technology transition. It is extremely difficult to predict when and where ultimate value of technology invention will be realized.
- Relevance and value comes from being strongly connected with the mission and needs of operational entities.
- Technology transition comes incrementally, and is built through a series of contributions by an entire eco-system of collaborators.
Laura went on to highlight the impact of the SBIR program on Oregon and the nation specifically from Galois’ participation:
- Increased Oregon access to broader US government business.
- Technology and market opportunities generated for new ventures.
- Exposure for companies like Galois to real and current government needs.
- Increased commercialization capability within Galois.
- Research developed for one agency spread to impact other agencies.
- Global cybersecurity research capabilities brought to bear on national needs.
She ended her testimony by providing the following suggested improvements:
- Augment success metrics for Phase-III to include evaluation of successful open source release.
- Incrementally increase Phase-I award size to enable better assessment of results in consideration of Phase-II.
- Accelerate Phase-I to Phase-II selection to match the pace of software technology change.
- Provide more support to Technical Points of Contact in the administration and guidance in SBIRs.
- Encourage TPOCs to provide connections with interested acquisition programs.
Laura did a great job representing Galois’ belief that the SBIR program is successful, both for fostering the innovation and jobs engine of small businesses, and for nurturing breakthrough technologies to the benefit of the government and wider economy. Click here to view the archived webcast of the hearing and click here to read Laura’s entire written testimony.