[Fwd: GAS-L: Government gasifier projects...]

[David Reynolds-Lacey <d.rl@virgin.net>]

David Reynolds-Lacey wrote:

> Dear Tom, Tom and Andrew et. al.
>
> Tom Reed wrote:
>
> > On the other hand I have been involved in a lot of Small Business Innovation
> > Grant projects and they seem to do very well.  Industry is not usually in a
> > position to test new ideas, so SBIRs provide a Phase I II III stage to
> > bringing them to fruition.
> >
> >
>
> Tom Miles wrote:
>
> > > Just last week I encountered  cases where individuals and companies
> > involved
> > > in that project have taken the results of their experience and carried
> > them
> > > further in the past five years to improve their systems. They have done
> > that
> > > with investment of their own funds and energies and their activities are
> > not
> > > for me to discuss here. You'll just have to take that on faith.
>
> The great problem with grant funding large scale, long term projects in the
> "public/ educational" sector is often the lack of continuity, because people
> move on once they have obtained their degree or whatever. There is also often a
> complete lack of "real world" commercial awareness, one thing I learnt in 30
> years of business is that it is easy to spend other people's money whether it be
> from grants or shareholders, I used neither. Small Business Innovation Grants
> are certainly the best way forward but on a matched funds basis and by this I
> mean that the people doing the work use their OWN fund,  not  matching funds
> raised from shareholders or from any other source (other than a perhaps a bank
> loan) otherwise you are effectively back to a 100 percent funding basis. There
> should also be strict controls on how the funds are spent,  salaries can gobble
> up vast sums and should not be paid out of grant money which should only be
> spent on actual hardware. It's a tough world out there and only the fit survive
> but you only want "fit" people working on funded projects and matched  SBI
> grants provide an ideal method of natural selection.
>
> Regards,
>
> David Reynolds-Lacey





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