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gest chunk of that. The center awarded approximately $421 million in contracts, of which $200 million went to Rhode Island. NUWC also provides a lot of funding from the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant program. ?It?s a big boost to the community, a lot of the sponsors of those grants were based here in Newport because there?s good contact with the engineering, customer and defense communi-ties,? said Jim Dodez, Vice President of Marketing and Strate- gic Planning, KVH Industries, Inc. in Middletown, R.I. SBIR grants stems from the mandate that a certain percentage of all government research money has to be directed to small busi- ness. ?So much money has been spent here.? As has so much knowledge has been gained, and stored, and actually, declassi ed. And much if it is up for grabs. That?s be- cause despite those impressive budget  gures from last years, the truth is, NUWC is not funded like your average govern- ment or military agency, which means it has to operate like a business. And that means actively selling its services and access to its intellectual property. ?One of the things that make us different from other govern- ment entities is that we are a Naval working capital fund activ- ity. Almost every other federal agency has a line item in the budget to do what they do. We don?t,? explains Dr. Theresa A. Baus, Head, Technology Partnerships Of ce, Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC). As a result, NUWC needs custom- ers and sponsors to bill or services. Most of its budget comes for doing work for other sectors of the Navy, but they still need dollars back as it were, from the private sector, about 3%. So much so that the facility is open to doing projects that fall outside their purview. ?My function is to facilitate agreement between the division and outside entities, and we do this in a variety of ways,? said Baus. Spaulding describes Baus as ?essentially the technology Left Don Aker, Deputy Technical Director of NUWC, Division Newport Right Dr. Theresa Baus, Head, Technology Partnerships Of Þ ceRAZOR UUV with both propeller and bio-robotic propulsion Þ ns.(Photo: U.S. Navy) (Photo: U.S. Navy) (Photo: U.S. Navy) www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 37MTR #2 (34-49).indd 37MTR #2 (34-49).indd 373/6/2013 2:51:45 PM3/6/2013 2:51:45 PM