* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
SBIR/STTR ALERTING SERVICE * August 18, 2006
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The SBIR/STTR Alerting Service is a free service that provides bi-weekly notification of SBIR and STTR solicitation announcements, news and information, and Internet resources relevant to the SBIR/STTR programs. This service is provided by the Economic Development Office of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
Back issues of the SBIR Alert are available on the World Wide Web at http://www . p n l .g o v / edo/sbir. Subscription instructions appear at the end of this newsletter.
NEWS IN THIS ISSUE
-- DoD SBIR Solicitation 2006.3 Released
-- PHS 2007-1 SBIR Contracts Solicitation Released
-- NIH SBIR CAP and Niche Assessment Program Announcements
-- DOE FY 2007 SBIR/STTR Technical Topic Titles
-- SBIR Proposal Writing Tip: Writing Less Takes More Time
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
SBIR/STTR NEWS AND INFORMATION
-- DoD SBIR Solicitation 2006.3 Released
The Department of Defense (DoD) 2006.3 SBIR solicitation was issued for public release on August 1, 2006. DoD will begin accepting proposals on September 13, and the deadline for receipt of proposals is October 13, 2006.
The program solicitation and topic files are available in PDF, WORD, and HTML file formats on the DoD SBIR/STTR website: .osd.mil/osbp/sbir/solicitations/sbir063/index.htm. This page also reminds interested parties that “between August 1 and September 12, 2006, you may talk directly with the Topic Authors to ask technical questions about the topics. Their names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses are listed within each solicitation topic. For reasons of competitive fairness, direct communication between proposers and topic authors is not allowed starting September 13, when DoD begins accepting proposals for this solicitation.”
-- PHS 2007-1 SBIR Contracts Solicitation Released
The Public Health Service (PHS) 2007 SBIR contracts solicitation was released on August 8, and is available electronically in both PDF and WORD file formats at the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Small Business Funding Opportunities (NIH SBIR/STTR) home page at .gov/gr a nts/funding/sbir.htm. It is anticipated that nearly 100 Phase I firm fixed price contracts of up to $100,000 will be distributed from among the components of the NIH and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Proposals are due November 6, 2006. For more information regarding the administration of an SBIR contract, see the list of contracting officers in Section X of the solicitation. For general information regarding the NIH SBIR program, contact
Ms. Jo Anne Goodnight
NIH SBIR/STTR Program Coordinator
6705 Rockledge Drive
Rockledge I, Room 3540
Bethesda, MD 20892-7963
Phone: (301) 435-2688 Fax: (301) 480-0146
Email:
-- NIH SBIR CAP and Niche Assessment Program Announcements
The NIH recently posted the following pair of announcements regarding their SBIR Niche Assessment and Commercialization Assistance Programs on their Small Business Funding Opportunities website (.gov/gran ts/funding/sbir.htm):
NIH Announces the Availability of an SBIR Niche Assessment Program for Phase I SBIR awardees in FY 2006 and FY 2007
NIH has contracted with Foresight Science and Technology to perform Technology Niche Analyses (TNA?) for 150 NIH SBIR Phase I awardees who received awards in fiscal years 2006 and 2007. The TNA? will assess potential uses of the technology and result in a report that addresses the end-user needs, current and emerging competing technologies, the market dynamics, and the technology’s competitive advantage. (NOTE: This program is not available to STTR awardees.) For a full description of the program, check the NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-06-089 (.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-089.html).
Expanded Opportunity to Participate in the NIH SBIR Commercialization Assistance Program (CAP)
NIH has become increasingly aware that the market size for many healthcare media companies is growing significantly and is attracting increased interest from investors and industrial partners. The goals of the CAP align with the current state of the market for these companies, so NIH has expanded the opportunity for healthcare media companies to participate in the program. NIH will now accept applications from all NIH (not CDC or FDA) SBIR (not STTR) Phase II awardees (grantees and contractors) with projects active in fiscal year 2001 to the present. Those only seeking the identification of customers are still considered not appropriate. Applications must be submitted by August 16, 2006.
All selected participants will be notified by August 25. A detailed program description is available at ta.org/nihcap/NIHCAP-ProgramDescription.pdf and to apply, please complete the application available at ta.org/nihcap/. Also review the notice placed in the NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts (.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-081.html) that was released July 10, 2006.
-- DOE FY 2007 SBIR/STTR Technical Topic Titles
The Department of Energy (DOE) recently posted a list of proposed technical topic titles for the FY 2007 SBIR/STTR solicitation on their SBIR/STTR home page (ence.d o e.gov/sbir/). The FY 07 Phase I Funding Notice is expected to be released on September 6, 2006. The topics listed below are subject to change:
Nuclear Physics
1) Nuclear Physics Software and Data Management
2) Nuclear Physics Electronics Design and Fabrication
3) Nuclear Physics Accelerator Technology
4) Nuclear Physics Particle and Radiation Detection Systems, Instrumentation and Techniques
Fossil Energy
5) Coal Gasification and Combustion Technologies
6) Advancements in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Balance-Of-Plant and Turbine Performance and Sub-Systems for Performance Enhancements
7) High Performance Materials for Long Term Fossil Energy Applications
8) Environmental Innovations for Fossil Energy Applications
9) Oil and Natural Gas Technologies
10) Climate Control Technology for Fossil Energy Applications
Electricity Delivery and Reliability
11) High Temperature Superconducting Second Generation Wire
12) Advanced Materials for Power Electronics and Energy Storage
13) Modeling and Analysis
Fusion Energy Sciences
14) Advanced Technologies and Materials for Fusion Energy Systems
15) Fusion Science and Technology
16) High Energy Density Physics for Inertial Fusion Energy
Nuclear Energy
17) Advanced Technologies for Nuclear Energy
Biological and Environmental Research
18) Medical Sciences
19) Atmospheric Measurement Technology
20) Technologies for Subsurface Measurement, Monitoring, Model Development, and Verification
21) Genomes-To-Life (GTL) and Related Biotechnologies
22) Carbon Cycle Measurements of the Atmosphere and the Biosphere
Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation
23) Research to Support Proliferation Detection
24) Research to Support Nuclear Explosion Monitoring
25) Remote Sensing to Support Nonproliferation
Basic Energy Sciences
26) Neutron and Electron Beam Instrumentation
27) Technology to Support National Scientific User Facilities
28) Advanced Coal Research
29) Materials for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems
30) Accelerator Technology for Present and Future Accelerator Facilities
31) Advanced Cooling Technology
32) Nanotechnology Applications for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
33) Catalysis
34) Chemical Reactions and Separation Processes for Biorefinery Applications
35) Separation Process Technologies for Manufacturing
36) Solid State Lighting for General Illumination
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
37) Wind Energy Reliability and Cost Reduction
38) Solar Energy
39) Hydrogen Delivery and Production
40) Technologies Related to Hybrid Electric Vehicles with a Special Focus On Plug-In Hybrids
41) Cellulosic Biomass to High-Value Products
42) Alternative Feedstocks to Chemicals
Advanced Scientific and Computing Research
43) Computational Sciences for Applied Science and Engineering
44) Advanced Software to Support Petascale Computer Systems
45) Petascale Data Management
46) Accessing Scientific Information from Databases and Libraries
47) High Performance Networks
48) Discovery, Search, and Communication of Textual Knowledge Resources in Distributed Systems
High Energy Physics
49) Accelerator Technology for International Linear Collider
50) Advanced Concepts and Technology for High Energy Accelerators
51) Radio Frequency Accelerator Technology for High Energy Accelerators and Colliders
52) High-Field Superconductor and Superconducting Magnet Technologies for High Energy Particle Colliders
53) High Energy Physics Detectors
54) High Energy Physics Data Acquisition and Processing
-- SBIR Proposal Writing Tip: Writing Less Takes More Time
The following proposal writing tip was provided by Gail & Jim Greenwood. Past SBIR proposal writing articles written by the Greenwoods are available on the Greenwood Consulting Group, Inc. (GCGI) web site at http://g-jgreen w ood.home.att.net.
SBIR Proposal Writing Basics: Writing Less Takes More Time
Copyright? 2006 by Greenwood Consulting Group, Inc.
Those of you who have perused the Department of Defense’s latest SBIR solicitation (FY06.3) already know this, but for everyone else here’s a heads up: The Air Force has decided this year to participate in two solicitations. For as long as we can remember, USAF has only been in one DOD SBIR solicitation per year, so this represents a significant departure from the past. Certainly this is good news for those of you interested in making USAF one of your customers.
If you are going to submit a Phase 1 proposal to the Air Force, please note an important requirement in their instructions: your proposal is limited to 20 pages (versus the long-time norm among USAF and most agencies of 25 pages). This requirement is found in the USAF-specific instructions at the start of their portion of the DOD FY06.3 solicitation; all DOD components have such requirements that supplement (and take precedence over) the general DOD proposal instructions found in the front of the solicitation.
“Great,” you say regarding the Air Force 20 page limit, “that means I will save some time because I don’t have to write as much.” Sorry, it probably is not going to work that way. Good writers know that it usually takes longer to write shorter documents (including proposals) than lengthy ones. Words have to be chosen very carefully, complicated sentences have to be simplified, hard decisions have to be made about what to omit from the proposal without lessening its competitiveness.
Some advice as you write your 20 page maximum Phase 1 proposal to Air Force:
First, plan to include on your proposal team an editor who can go through the draft proposal and cut out needless redundancies, rewrite unnecessarily lengthy and complicated verbiage, and generally sharpen up the proposal.
Second, consider using the on-line cost proposal form, rather than doing your own spreadsheet following the old DOD format specified in the solicitation. The on line form, regardless of how many pages it takes to print, only counts as one page. It also is designed for SBIR/STTR proposals, whereas the old DOD format is a generic one.
Third, note that DOD counts any attachments (except the Company Commercialization Report) towards the page limit, so be very judicious about including them. For example, if you have 2 letters of support from potential customers or strategic partners, keep them brief and put both on one page.
Fourth, before you start writing, set a budget for the number of pages you will include in each section of your Air Force proposal, and then stick to it. Here is a suggestion on how we would allocate our 20 page limit to the required sections:
Cover sheet 1 page
Abstract 1
ID/significance 2
Technical Objectives 1
Work Plan 4.5
Related Work 2
Future R&D 1
Commercialization strategy 2
Key personnel 2
Facilities/equipment 1
Subcontractors/consultants 1
Support for similar work .5
Cost proposal 1
This might be adjusted for a particular proposal; for example, if you have no subs or consultants on your project, then the 1 page saved there could be moved to Key Personnel to more thoroughly show you have all the required expertise in house.
Best of luck to all of you submitting proposals under the FY06.3 DOD solicitation. And don’t forget to contact the topic author before the black out period begins on September 13, 2006.
Greenwood Consulting Group, Inc.
1150 Junonia
Sanibel, FL 33957
(239) 395-9446 (voice & fax)
(email)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS
NATIONAL
National SBIR Fall 2006 Conference, Milwaukee, WI, November 6 - 9, 2006. The National Science Foundation, in association with the Small Business Administration and all 11 SBIR agencies, is sponsoring this 2006 Fall National SBIR/STTR Conference. For more information, visit rworld.com/WI/ or contact Sharon DelaBarre at or 360-683-5742.
REGIONAL
* Phase 1 Proposal Preparation Workshops, Various Locations, Tennessee, August 21-25, 2006. These workshops will start with the basics of SBIR/STTR, and then move into a comprehensive four-step process for developing a competitive Phase 1 SBIR/STTR proposal. The workshop will be held at various locations across Tennessee during the week of August 21; for details contact .
SBIR Competitive Checklist, Washington DC area, August 22, 2006. This proposal writing/polishing class for those with current proposal activities will be sponsored by Maryland Technology Development Corp. (TEDCO), the Prince George’s County Economic Development Corporation (PGCEDC) and Bowie State University. The workshop will stress the importance of addressing competitive issues not just compliance issues before submitting a SBIR or STTR application. For more information, visit www.sbir.us or call (410) 315-8101.
* Phase 1 Proposal Preparation Workshop, Atlanta, Georgia, September 6, 2006. This workshop starts with the basics of SBIR/STTR and continues into a four-step process for developing a competitive Phase 1 SBIR/STTR proposal. Special emphasis will be placed on opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses in SBIR/STTR, but the workshop will be relevant to all small businesses. Seating is limited. For more information, contact , or visit ayevents.com/gaworkshop/.
SWIFT Tour, Bozeman, MT, September 12, 2006. This event is part of the SWIFT Tour which is a trans-agency SBIR outreach effort sponsored by Navy SBIR/STTR, designed to bring the benefits of a national SBIR conference to regions across the United States. Up-to-date information on agencies' SBIR/STTR programs and opportunities to meet with companies and individuals in one-on-one private discussions will be available. For more information, visit .gov/SWIFTTour.asp or contact Michele Cheeseman at 406-841-2748 or .
* Phase 2 Proposal Preparation Workshop, Bozeman, Montana, September 13, 2006. At the conclusion of the SWIFT Tour stop in Bozeman, a Phase 2 proposal preparation workshop will be offered. This session is intended primarily for existing Phase 1 winners getting ready for the next important step in their projects, but also is valuable to those who want an overview of the whole SBIR/STTR process before they decide whether to participate in the two programs. The workshop includes Phase 2 basics, important differences among Phase 2 agencies, recommendations for preparing the Phase 2 proposal, and converting Phase 2 technologies into Phase 3 products and services. For more information, contact or visit .gov/SWIFTTour.asp or .gov/cgi-bin/confreg/register/index.cgi.