Read the solicitations in detail as SBIR and STTR are slightly different.  Also, read the separate Component-specific (Army, AF, DARPA, MDA, etc.) instructions as proposal requirements vary among the Components. 

The DOD will begin accepting proposals on August 17th and all proposals must be submitted before 6:00 AM on September 15th. You are urged to contact the topic Technical Point of Contact (TPOC)  to ask additional technical questions not found in the topic itself.  You may NOT make direct contact with the TPOC after August 16th–don’t wait until the last minute to ask questions and expect them to respond to you ASAP, it might take some time for them to get back with you.

Your company will need a Tax ID #, DUNs #, and CAGE code before you register to submit your proposal.  If you do not have these numbers, you need to start soon as obtaining these numbers might take some time.  See the document “Registration Requirements” for more information.

There will be many topics and subtopics that fall within these Mission Directorates. Full list of Topics and Subtopics will be available on the 19th. Meanwhile, take a look at last years’ 2009 solicitation topics  to give you an indication of projected 2010 topic areas. 

All contractual and technical questions must be submitted in writing via email to Cassandra Williams, Contracting Officer (cassandra.williams-1@nasa.gov), not later than August 13, 2010.  NOTE: To ensure fairness, questions relating to the intent and/or content of research topics in this Solicitation will not be addressed during the Phase 1 solicitation period. Only questions requesting clarification of proposal instructions and administrative matters will be addressed.

When the solicitation opens on the 19th, it will be posted on NASA’s SBIR/STTR site.

All Phase I proposals will be due on September 4th.

The USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has identified five primary “societal challenge areas”.  Proposals that fit in one of the topics below AND address these challenge areas are highly encouraged:

1. Global Food Security and Hunger
2. Climate Change
3. Sustainable Bioenergy
4. Childhood Obesity
5. Food Safety

Proposals are also encouraged in these government-wide initiatives:

1. Agriculturally-related Manufacturing Technology
2. Energy Efficiency and Alternative and Renewable Energy

The Topics for this solicitiation are:

8.1-Forests and Related Resources;
8.2-Plant Production and Protection – Biology;
8.3-Animal Production and Protection;
8.4-Air, Soil and Water Resources;
8.5-Food Science and Nutrition;
8.6-Rural and Community Development;
8.7-Aquaculture;
8.8- Biofuels and Biobased Products;
8.12-Small and Mid Size Farms;
8.13-Plant Production and Protection – Engineering

Please be sure to read the solicitation for proposal preparation instructions and topic descriptions.

• Detector for Smuggled Currency
• Next Generation Vacuum Systems for Hand-held Mass Spectrometers
• Large-Scale Network Survivability, Rapid Recovery, and Reconstitution
• Non-Detonable, Non-Hazardous, Low-Cost, Hexamethylene Triperoxide Diamine (HMTD) Training Aids for Canines
• Automated Tool for Assessing Usability
• Helmet with Embedded Active Display for Emergency Responders (HEADER)
• Accelerating the Deployment of DHS Center of Excellence Research through Advanced Business Practices
• Handheld Multisensor Wand for the Detection of Threat or Illicit Objects on Persons
• Personal Situational Awareness App

 Read the solicitation for further details.

NOTE: DHS encourages submission of topics for future solicitations.  Check their site out for more details.

• Army
• Navy
• DARPA
• DMEA
• DTRA
• OSD

The military is looking for very specific solutions to their problems, but if you have the capabilities to solve their problems, not only could you receive up to $850,000 for Phase I and Phase II SBIR funding, you are positioned to possibly receive additional follow-on funding. 

Proposals are due June 23rd at 6:00 AM, but you only have until May 19th to contact the topic’s technical point of contact to ask additional technical questions.  The full solicitation contains the specific proposal  details, but be sure to also read and follow the Component’s specific instructions to get a list of topics and topic descriptions.

Topics are quite diverse.  Do not rule out the DOD just because your company does not have “military-related technologies.”  Here is a sample of the 400+ topics found in this solicitation:

• Real-time Resource Allocation Co-Processor
• Artificial Tissue Matrices for Bone Repair
• Large Scale Graphene Synthesis Technology
• Forensic DNA Analysis Kit for Genetic Intelligence
• Shipboard Clothes Dryers, “Green Technology”
• Lithium Ion Batteries with Wide Operating Temperature Range
• Many Many MANY more!

Do a few keyword topic searches in the DOD Search Engine to see what the DOD needs–topics might surprise you!

There are two VERY SPECIFIC technical topics for this proposal:

1. Radiation Detection Modules for the Geospatial Location Accountability and Navigation System for Emergency Responders (GLANSER) system.

2. Neutron detectors including replacement for He-3

While there are only 2 topics for this solicitation, if your company can carry out this research and develop the product DHS needs, a Phase I proposal is up to $150,000 for up to 6 months of research.

Proposals are due May 11th.  See solicitation for details.

Proposals will be due in Washington on May 11th at noon.

Your proposed technology must meet the qualifications of the topic description, have sound technical and scientific merit, and significant commercial application potential. 

Topic categories (full topic descriptions are found in the solicitation):

*Green Building
*Innovation in Manufacturing
*Nanotechnology
*Greenhouse Gases
*Drinking Water Monitoring and Treatment
*Wastewater and Sustainable Infrastructure
*Air Pollution Monitoring and Control
*Biofuels
*Waste Monitoring and Management
*Homeland Security

 See the full SBIR solicitation (PR-NC-10-10251) for complete details.

 If you are seeking an investment via an SBIR or STTR award, you might not think you need to explain its market potential –after all, you don’t have to “pay back” the award.  Well, that’s true, you do not have to write a check and pay them back, but the American tax payer is investing in your idea. The government is taking a chance on your idea and your company; they want to know that you can take their investment and make a sustaining product that will enable your company to grow.  If you grow, you create jobs, and job creation means growth in the economy.

 Writing a well crafted commercialization plan can help you make your case.

 Your commercialization plan needs to be detailed and well thought out. Avoid generalized statements like “there is a huge market” or “we can make lots of money”.  Start by answering some basic questions: Is there a market pull—who’s asking for the technology or who has indicated that they actually NEED your technology? What is the size of the market? How will you manufacture, market, and sell it if you only have a 1-person company?  Do you have a plan to get it from your laboratory into the hands of your customer?  How will you price it in order to make profitable—if the cost to produce far exceeds the amount customers are willing to pay, how will you make a profit?  How is your management team structured—has anyone brought a technology from inception to market? Not only do you need to answer these questions, you need to make sure you’ve done market research to support your claims with hard facts–do not make claims you cannot back. 

 For a more comprehensive list of concepts to include, see Elements of Your Commercialization Plan.

There are four Main Topics with multiple subtopics under each:

• Biotech and Chemical Technologies (BC)
• Education Applications (EA)
• Information and Communication Technologies (IC)
• Nanotechnology, Advanced Materials, and Manufacturing (NM)

Proposals will be due by June 9th.

 Since the focus of SBIR/STTR is funding for your research,  you need to fully explain to the funding agency what that research will be.  Yes, all parts of your proposal are important, but the meat of your proposal needs to be your Research Plan (also known as a Work Plan).  This is what the agency is going to pay you to accomplish.

 The plan needs to be a step-by-step outline of not only what you will do, but also how you will actually do it, who will do it, how the predicted results will move the overall idea forward, where it will be done, and when it will be accomplished–a timeline for completing the work.  Every aspect of your research needs to be spelled out exactly; do not make the reviewer guess or assume! Time after time companies fail to realize how detailed it needs to be.  

 Writing out a clear plan also helps you think through your overall goals. Once you start detailing, you might discover you need to modify your strategy to actually meet your desired objectives, or you might need to scale back your research to complete it within budget and time-frame. Creating a detailed Research Plan will help your company–whether you receive the SBIR/STTR Award or not.