SBIR National Program Leader for
USDA/NIFA Comments on New Solicitation
The USDA SBIR program has recently posted the FY 2014 RFA on its website with a closing date of September 26, 2013 for submission of Phase I proposals. The USDA SBIR program is one of several SBIR  programs that offers grants and thus the ideas are investigator initiated. Proposals can be submitted to one of 10 broad topic areas, 1) Forests and Related Resources; 2) Plant Production and Protection - Biology; 3) Plant Production and Protection - Engineering; 4) Animal Production and Protection; 5) Air, Water and Soils; 6) Food Science and Nutrition; 7) Rural and Community Development; 8) Aquaculture; 9) Biofuels and Biobased Products; and 10) Small and Mid-Size Farms. For each topic area a number of priority areas/suggested subtopics are listed but for most topic areas applications dealing with other subject areas are also acceptable so long as they fit within the broad confines of the particular topic area. Applicants are also encouraged to submit proposals to any of the topic areas that deal with one of two government-wide research priorities, 1) Agriculturally-related Manufacturing Technology or 2) Energy Efficiency and Alternative and Renewable Energy, OR one of five USDA societal challenge areas, 1) Global Food Security and Hunger, 2) Climate Change, 3) Sustainable Bioenergy, 4) Childhood Obesity, or 5) Food Safety. When two proposals are rated essentially equivalent and one of them addresses one or more of these special areas, this will be considered a tie-breaker and the proposal that addresses the special areas will be given priority.
Proposals must be submitted by for-profit, US-owned small business firms and the small business submitting the proposal must do a minimum of 2/3 of the research effort. Up to 1/3 of the budget can be allocated to consulting or subcontracting agreements with outside individuals, and a large majority of SBIR winners engage scientists from universities or government laboratories to assist with the SBIR project. For more information, visit: www.csrees.usda.gov/fo/sbir.cfm. Charles F. Cleland, Ph.D.
SBIR National Program Leader, USDA/NIFA
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DoD Alert
If you're considering a possible future proposal to DoD be aware of the following:
- On July 26, DoD will pre-release topics for its final SBIR solicitation (DoD SBIR 2013.3) and final STTR solicitation (DoD STTR 2013.B) of this fiscal year.
- From that date you have approximately 60 days to identify a topic in the solicitation, ask questions, and prepare and submit your proposal by the September 25 deadline.
- During the pre-release period, which ends on August 25, direct communication with the topic author at DoD is "highly encouraged" but after that date any questions you have must be publicly posted online at SITIS. We recommend communication!
- Although we won't see the new topics until they're released on July 26, you can perform a technical "key-word" search of old topics at the SBIR Gateway to investigate potential opportunities for your technology.
Michael Kurek, PhD
Partner
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We've Said it Before and We'll Say it Again
(and again,
and again, and . . .)
If you have been preparing a National Institutes of Health (NIH) SBIR/STTR grant submission, you are obviously aware that the deadline is 5 p.m. your local time on Monday, August 5.
 Despite the fact that BBC has always advised clients to submit their SBIR/STTR proposals to Grants.gov no later than August 1, there are always a few who have to test the limits (you know who you are) and wait until 4:59 to push the button. BBC warns: DON'T BE ONE OF THEM!
Know these truths:
- You must have an error-corrected, perfectly-compiled pdf of your proposal visible in your NIH eRA Commons account at 5 p.m. on August 5, and
- If you do not fix all of the electronic submission errors and get your proposal safely through to NIH by 5 p.m. on the deadline, then your proposal may not proceed to review.
BBC clients can count on us to look through their completed Application Packages before submission, but even so, proposals may still have errors on a first attempt. It can take up to 48 hours to get a description of these errors back from Grants.gov, and they are sometimes hard to decipher and fix.
Take our advice: Submit by Thursday, August 1, so you will have three more days to address any errors you may have. Stay ahead of the game to improve your chances of success!
Andrea Johanson, PhD
Principal Consultant
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Advice from the DoD SBIR Trenches: Getting Award is Just the Beginning
If your company has been awarded an SBIR contract from the Dept. of Defense you've cleared a big hurdle, but another, possibly even more daunting one lies ahead: getting the military to use your  technology. We thought it might be valuable to hear some advice on this topic from someone who's been there and done that successfully, so we asked Joe O'Brien, Business Development Manager for Aerospace at Variation Reduction Solutions, Inc. (VRSI) to share his tips from the trenches on moving your technology up the DoD food chain. VRSI provides state-of-the-art solutions for metrology, robot guidance and inspection needs. They've won DoD Manufacturing Technology Awards and successfully integrated their services into military use.
First, he says, answering the following questions can reveal holes in your approach:
- What program and program need drove the SBIR in the first place?
- Are you meeting the project goals?
- Were there any original project goals to incorporate this device into its respective program?
- What was/is the MRL (manufacturing readiness level) or TRL (technology readiness level) required at the end of project? Were they met?
- Are you actively working with the SBIR project manager (is the Project Manager helping you get this product into a program)? If not, why not?
Basic SBIR's ($150K Phase I and between $750K and $1M Phase II) often result in lower MRL's or TRL's which leaves newbie SBIR companies scrambling to take the invention from prototype to commercial product on their own. Lining up advocates in the end user community for any device/process can be tough on a normal day. Doing it after the fact (after the SBIR is complete) with potential product maturity issues (because the SBIR only took it to TRL 5 or 6 when you needed 7 or 8) only compounds the problems.
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Joe O'Brien
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"In our experience with the Air Force we've found that the best way to get something considered for use is to cost justify it. Generally this is performed by the end user. Was there a specified end user? Was the end-user engaged over the course of the SBIR? Was there a cost-savings estimate performed?
"We are very conscientious about communicating with our TPOC, and we go above and beyond to keep that person involved in our progress."
For example:
- VRSI issues bi-weekly progress reports including updated timelines, open issues, and any progress/set-backs. Detailed explanations, charts, graphs and pictures help quite a bit. They also schedule bi-weekly call-in's so all issues can be discussed on a regular basis. The bi-weekly report is sent out the day before the call-in so everyone has a chance to review it before we talk.
- VRSI drafts Laboratory Management Reviews's and internal reports for their TPOC's to edit if desired. It gives you opportunity to make sure developments you'd like to highlight are seen by the TPOC and also helps you think about the project from side of the fence so you are better attuned to the metrics and politics used to define success.
Joe suggests asking the TPOC for more information on the acquisition program that your project will feed into, and if it is possible/advisable to include someone from the acquisition group in your briefings. If there isn't a specified acquisition program, ask where they expect it would be inserted for Phase III. Engaging early can help you develop a champion at the acquisition end.
"Be sure to do your own homework about where there is interest in your technology. Consider asking your TPOC to suggest other components/programs that you might want to keep informed about your technology and/or check in the DoD SBIR award database to see if there have been awards for projects that are similar in nature to yours--that will tell you who else might be interested in it.
Last, but not least, says Joe, get cracking on this early. If you're "on your own," it's better to know as soon as possible so you can be proactive in developing Phase III opportunities.
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NSF's Small Business Postdoctoral Research Diversity Fellowships are a Win-Win
The Small Business Postdoctoral Research Diversity Fellowship program encourages creative and highly-trained recipients of doctoral degrees in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematical disciplines to engage in hands-on research projects in their areas of expertise at small innovative businesses. This program offers active Phase II SBIR participating companies the opportunity to attract top scientific and technological talent at a fraction of the usual cost. At the same time, the program recruits postdoctoral fellows from underrepresented groups to work for at least a year outside an academic setting.
Fellows are paid $75,000 plus health benefits for the 12-month period. Host companies pay $10,000 toward the salary and an additional $2,500 administrative fee. The program is administered by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Companies post a research opportunity online related to their current SBIR Phase II project. Applicants apply to a specific posted research opportunity with a five-page research proposal. PhD candidates can apply for the fellowship but, if selected, cannot start the program until the degree is received.
Companies view the proposals as they are submitted to their opportunity. Despite the number of opportunities it posts, each company may receive only one fellowship. Fellows become full-time independent contractors of ASEE (i.e., self-employed guest researchers). For additional information and details, visit http://nsfsbir.asee.org/.
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Onsite
Proposal Prep for DoD
Aug 8 -Sterling Hts., MI
Proposal Prep for DoE
Aug 20 - Detroit, MI
Proposal Prep for NIH
Sep 10-11 - Grand Rapids, MI
Sep 16-17 - Chicago, IL
SBIR/STTR Intro & Overview
Sep 24 - New York, NY
Jul 30 - Essentials of CommercializationSep 19 - ABCs of SBIR/ STTR Funding Jul 31 - Overview of DoD Topics & Components Aug 22 - Budget Prep for DoD & DoE
A selection of BBCetc's recorded webinars
is now available
for purchase.
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DOE Topics Released
Topics for the Dept. of Energy's FY 2014 SBIR/STTR Phase I Release 1 FOA were issued on July 15 with following program offices participating:
- Advanced Scientific Computing Research - Basic Energy Sciences - Biol. & Envtl. Research - Defense Nuclear Prolif. - High Energy Physics - Nuclear Physics DOE will discuss the topics during three 90-minute webinars, during which many topic managers will be on hand to provide their insights. Monday, July 22, 1 PM EDT - Topics 1-15 Tuesday, July 23, 1 PM EDT - Topics 16-28 Wednesday, July 24, 10:30 AM EDT - Topics 29-40 The webinars will be recorded for those who can't attend at the live times, but you must register to receive an email with the recording link.
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Cycle 3 Deadline is Aug. 23
An initiative of NYCEDC and the City of New York, managed by BBCetc, SBIR Impact NYC is designed to enhance the competitiveness of SBIR/STTR proposals among NYC-based life sciences and healthcare technology companies. Each year, SBIR Impact will offer 20 companies, selected through a competitive application process, specialized assistance combining an advanced training workshop and 20 hours each in one-on-one expert proposal-development assistance. Fourteen companies have been selected to date in the first two cycles. The deadline to submit applications for Cycle 3 is August 23. Application
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"I recently attended a STIR/STTR training session conducted by BBC at the NH Innovation Research Center. Our instructor, Lisa Kurek, was outstanding. Lisa possesses an in-depth working knowledge of SBIR and the federal agencies involved with the program. Her extensive slide presentation was easy to follow and well documented with numerous links to additional resources. Lisa's fast paced two way style kept our attention throughout. In addition, Lisa has a very unique ability to use real-time examples developed around the interests of the attendees to make the learning experience personal, understandable, memorable and extremely valuable."
David DeWitt
Phase65, Inc.
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"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending
his money somewhere else."
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who we are
BBCetc is nationally recognized for its expertise in helping technology-based entrepreneurs win federal grants and contracts through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs and use it strategically to propel growth. Its Michigan clients have been awarded over $120 million in funding since 2002.
BBCetc capabilities include:
-Technology Assessment
-Commercialization
Planning
-SBIR/STTR/Other
Research Grant
Assistance
-Entrepreneurial Training
-Grants/Contracts
Management
734-930-9741
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