1. $1.2 Billion and the Best Single Source if ?
Congress created the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program in 1982. The program is designed to stimulate innovative research by small businesses while providing government agencies with new, cost-effective solutions to technical and scientific problems. Over $1 billion in SBIR funds and over $100 million in Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) funds are available each year to qualifying companies, making these the largest pool of seed-stage R&D money available. Only companies organized for profit may propose. Qualifications include employer of 500 or fewer, independent of large company control, predominantly U.S. owned and willing to perform project work in the U.S.
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We'll use the term grants to apply whether they technically are grants or contracts; differences are slight and neither variety requires repayment. Grant topics typically are generated by the innovator within guidelines, while contract topics are more likely specified in considerable detail by the agency, whom the proposer needs to know and talk to.
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SBIR and STTR opportunities exist for a very broad range of projects, offered in an understandable structured manner with little red-tape, making these grants the "best in class".
- The greatest caveat is that an SBIR and STTR proposal MUST meet needs or solve vital problems that can be deemed "in the national interests," at least for some major segment of our society or economy. One good way to judge this is to assure that the project advances the mission and goals of the sponsoring agency.
- Second caveat: the work must be truly innovative or "leading edge" in application if not discovery. This says the applicant must be well aware of similar work past and present, hence, must do his homework thoroughly.
Those who do best in the SBIR programs are going companies with credentials in the field of the proposal or who partner with recognized experts - companies for whom the SBIR fits and advances their business plan. Occasionally, a lone innovator or small partnership can start a company based on SBIR grants, but because of their competitive nature, the principals had better have a lot going for them as well as a backup plan. An inventor who wants SBIR money to tinker at home and make models, but has no real intention of making a paying business with the product, shouldn't waste his or the agency's energy. His chances are nil, but the serious professional who has an appropriate project and is capable of true innovation and commercialization has about a 30 to 70 percent chance of getting funded.
Although SBIR and STTR grants and contracts have the tremendous advantages of not having to be repaid, not giving up equity, and retaining for the grantee almost all rights to intellectual property developed with government money, the timing aspect of the program can be a serious drawback. If you are in a rush to get your product to market, realize that it can easily take 6 to 18 months until you would see any SBIR monies. And if you follow through on the traditional track, it would take about 3.5 to 4 years or more, from first application to complete development, testing, and get to market. If urgency dominates, think twice. But if there is no other way, then so be it.
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How SBIR and STTR Work
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Proposal Submission Calendar
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Calendar of Events
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Proposal Tips
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Idaho SBIR & STTR Winners