A friend and colleague frequently speaks about the need to bridge the research-practice gap. It's a wonderfully descriptive idea, and one that I spent much time considering over the last few years.
The research-practice gap refers to the time between when research scientists have enough documented experimental evidence to support a hypothesis that improves some aspect of the human experience, and the time that the professions in that area widely adopt the new practices.
Researchers and practitioners have to go through a predictable sequence of events to bring important research to clients. First, practitioners must be aware of the research, its applicability, its cost, its risk, and its benefits. Second, they must be able to communicate that the benefits outweigh the risks to their colleagues, regulatory boards, credentialing boards, and customers. Third, they must gain social proof that the new approach works better than the old at an acceptable cost. Finally, they must establish a track record of success over time to establish the new approach as a professional standard.
Recently, I have been working with a client on some proposals for the recent batch of SBIR Topics (searchable here). This work has caused me to reflect some more on the research-practice gap, and how we might go about bridging it, especially in industries that support military training and operations.
For research-focused efforts like SBIRs and STTRs, there are four main stakeholders who need to be aligned to successfully move through the SBIR process and into ongoing programs of record. At one end of the pipeline is the research agency, frequently one of the Service research labs. At the other end of the pipeline is the end user - the tactical commander or staff the will be using the technology. Between the researcher and the end user are two key groups, the requirements sponsor and the resource sponsor. The requirements sponsor's portfolio includes gathering and validating requirements from across the Service. The resource sponsor then takes validated requirements and advocates for the funding of programs to deliver those capabilities to the tactical users. Each of these four stakeholders has a different focus, different priorities, different equities, and speaks in a different language about their role. They may not communicate frequently and may not be aware of the full portfolio of the other organizations (this is especially true in the case of the tactical commander trying to develop awareness of what research is ongoing so they can help develop use cases and priorities). In execution, the process is more complicated.
A successful effort to complete an SBIR/STTR and transition the technology to an ongoing program of record requires a team that understands how to align these stakeholders, how to communicate with each in their own language and in terms of their specific priorities, how to assess risk and develop branch and sequel plans, how to help the stakeholders influence each other, how to sequence these efforts so the requirements and resourcing are in place at the right time as the research effort concludes, and how to navigate frequent turnover of decision-makers and shifting geo-political and budget priorities.
The team should also consider commercialization opportunities early in the process. Depending on the market segment, there will be a similar set of stakeholders that will require another ongoing alignment effort. In segmented markets, the alignment challenges multiply quickly.
Finally, the team should focus not just on the life of the project from research to program of record to commercialization, but how the project contributes to the talent stack of the team now and in the future. One desired output of a successfully transitioned research project is growth of the team's talent stack in a way that aligns with company leadership's vision for the long-term positioning and success of the company.
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