Your company has made the decision to pursue non-dilutive funding. Locating agencies and choosing proposal topics is an important first step down the road to winning SBIR funding.
I group solicitations into two buckets: investigator-initiated, and agency-initiated. For example, NIH has both, NSF solicitations are agency-initiated but are broad topics, and DoD are strictly defined agency-initiated contracts.
Here are some resources that can assist you in identifying solicitations.
In the third post of the blog series titled “Tales From the Front: Advice From SBIR-funded Entrepreneurs”, I share with you Rick Weiss’ tips for companies seeking to grow their business with SBIR funding. Rick is the Founder and President of Viocare, Inc. Viocare has a platform of solutions that enable companies, communities and clinicians to improve the wellness and productivity of their respective employees, members or patients. Recently, I had the pleasure of hearing Rick speak as a guest at an SBIR workshop given by Jim Greenwood and sponsored by the New Jersey Small Business Development Center
Here are his eight tips for SBIR success.
Michael Weingarten
I had the privilege of hearing NCI’s SBIR guru Michael Weingarten speak at two local events recently. One was the NCI SBIR conference sponsored by the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center (MTTC), and the other was at a panel on Alternative Sources of Funding for Life Science Startups sponsored by Harvard innovation lab. Here are some of the highlights. (more…)
In the second post of the “Tales From the Front: Advice From SBIR-funded Entrepreneurs” series, I share with you Ron Oglevie’s “Winning Strategies”. Ron is a self-described “80-year-old technology junky”. He has a BS in Engineering from UCLA and an MS in Aerospace Engineering from USC. He spent his first career as an “intrapreneur” at a large aerospace company (now Boeing), before forming the Irvine Innovation Institute (III). The mission of III is to create high-tech businesses with strong growth potential. He has a 100% win ratio on the last 8 technology contracts that he managed, including 4 SBIR contracts in the aviation and aerospace fields.
Here is his advice. (more…)
Courtesy of Greg Goebel
The path to SBIR success may be grueling at times, so there are certainly benefits to hearing any lessons learned. I recently sought out SBIR-funded entrepreneurs who could speak candidly about their journey and provide some tips for companies who are embarking on that path. This post summarizes a conversation I had with Jonathan Pearl, founder and President of Perceptral LLC, and recipient of four SBIR awards.
Here are his thoughts and tips on how to obtain SBIR funding.
The peer review process is the fundamental way that NIH, NSF and other granting agencies assess the merit of submitted proposals.
The agencies solicit peer reviewers by either contacting the Principal Investigators of funded grants, or by self-nomination.
If you are an applicant seeking funding and want insight into the review process to increase your own chances of success, go ahead and nominate yourself as a reviewer! Here are the details.
The new reauthorization act will soon allow venture capital-backed companies to compete for SBIR/STTR funding. So now is the time to begin thinking about grant topics.
The SBIR/STTR program
is a government program that hands out $2B each year to small businesses. Want to compete for a piece of that pie, but don’t know where to start?
Here is a set of questions on six different aspects of your application that you should think through before you begin your SBIR Adventure. (more…)
Courtesy of Flikr - Creative Commons
The new SBIR/STTR reauthorization bill has passed and now allows venture capital-backed companies to apply for SBIR/STTR funding (see what the SBA has to say on implementation here). The company’s founders (and your Board) are telling you that the company needs to pursue non-dilutive funding. So, naturally, you are starting to think about SBIR and STTR grants.
First, you must remember that this is the government. Do you realize you need no less than SEVEN logins to apply for a grant? It is an alphabet soup of sorts – EIN/TID, DUNS, CCR (E-Biz POC), MPIN, AOR (grants.gov), eRA Commons (PI, SO, AO)…
Here’s a guide to help you make sense of all this.
On the last day of 2011, President Obama rang in the new year by signing the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) HR.1540 into law. This bill gave the SBIR/STTR program a much-needed (OK, huge) breath of fresh air, extending the program into the second half of 2017.
Image - Flickr/Creative Commons
The April 5 deadline for the NIH Omnibus solicitation is approaching, so now is the time to start thinking about preparing your application. As a follow-up to a post last year on Five Tips for First-Time SBIR/STTR Grant Applicants, I have compiled four more tips that you should consider when assembling your application. (more…)
Are you new to SBIRs? Need help navigating the application process? Or do you want to stay up-to-date on the latest SBIR/STTR news? In this blog post, I describe some of the resources available to SBIR/STTR applicants and grantees. (more…)
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