The National Cancer Institute has announced the release of the 2012 SBIR Phase II Bridge Award program. The award helps bridge the funding gap, known as the “Valley of Death,” that currently exists between the end of the SBIR Phase II award and the next round of financing needed to advance a promising cancer therapy or imaging technology toward commercialization. The program is specifically intended to foster relationships between small business applicants and third-party investors and strategic partners who can help finance their development efforts.
The NCI intends to commit $10 million in fiscal year 2012, covering as many as 10 grants of up to $1 million annually for as long as three years. Development efforts may include preclinical R&D needed for regulatory filings or clinical trials in three project areas:
(1) cancer therapeutics
(2) cancer imaging technologies, interventional devices and in vivo diagnostics
(3) in vitro and ex vivo cancer diagnostics and prognostics
There are two deadlines to submit an SBIR Phase application: December 28, 2011 & March 27, 2012. For more information, visit the National Cancer Institute website.
Applications for the NIH Contract solicitation are due at 5 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, Nov. 7. The NIH Contract solicitation is released only once yearly, and contains a list of topics pertinent to each agencies mission. Unlike the grant solicitation, contracts are for specific work on a topic that has been pre-defined. Topics available in this year’s solicitation range from Wireless Telemetry for MRI to Rapid Point-of-Care tests for Fungal Diagnosis. Topics are highly specific and only proposals matching the published topics will be accepted; no investigator-initiated applications will be allowed. Budgets are also strictly enforced, and are limited to $150,000 for a Phase I and $1M for a Phase II. And, unlike other applications to the NIH, this solicitation must be submitted in paper form and received, as verified by time stamp, at the agency by the deadline above. Detailed information, including program contacts, detailed topic descriptions, and instructions for preparing proposals, are available in the solicitation.
Participating agencies, with the approximate number of contracts each expects to award:
NIH: National Cancer Institute (37); National Center for Research Resources (1-2); National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute (18 – 29); National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism 2-4); National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases (1); National Institute on Drug Abuse (15 – 21).
Centers for Disease Control: Center for Global Health (2); National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (1); National Center for Emerging Zoonotic & Infectious Diseases (2); National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, SDT, & TB Prevention (3) ; Office of Public Health Preparedness & Response (1).
Proposals will be reviewed between February and June 2012, with award dates between July and September 2012, depending on the awarding unit (see the solicitation for details).
The Department of Defense is the largest agency participating in the SBIR program with an annual fund exceeding $1 billion. Their third SBIR solicitation, 2011.3, was preleased on July 28th. Technologies outlined in this solicitation range from Controlled Released Anti-Microbials to Advanced Propellants. Importantly, all applications must address a specific topic as laid out in the solicitation. No investigator-initiated applications are accepted. Potential applicants can discuss topics with program officers until Aug. 28, and proposals will be accepted from Aug. 29 through Sept. 28.
The solicitation consists of the main set of instructions and a document from each participating DoD component (the Army, Navy, DARPA, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense). Each document discusses the topics as well as any specific submission requirements of the participating DoD component. The specific requirements supersede the general requirements, so be sure to read all carefully. For example, the Army limits the technical proposal to 20 pages rather than the 25 pages called for in the overall solicitation. Anything over 20 pages submitted to the Army will be considered non-compliant and will not be evaluated.
In addition to reading the documents carefully, we suggest you subscribe to the listserv (link at the bottom of the main solicitation page) to get information on any updates issued.
NASA, one of the largest players in the SBIR/STTR funding pool, has opened the 2011 SBIR/STTR solicitation for Phase I projects. Proposals are due September 8. The maximum value of Phase I awards has been increased to $125,000. According to NASA, the acceptance rate for both SBIR and STTR proposals is 8:1, with 45 percent of those selected for Phase I also being selected for follow-on Phase II awards. Topics include specific areas within aeronautics research, exploration systems, space operations and planet & space science. The topic list is included in the solicitation. Remember to read the solicitation carefully and make sure you meet all the checklist requirements. For more information, review our online resources or join us at an SBIR Circle, held every Thursday at 10:30 a.m. in ATDC room 207 at Technology Square, 75 Fifth St NW.
The US Department of Defense has pre-released an SBIR Solicitation. Proposals are accepted starting December 13th and ending January 12th, 2010. Topics in this solicitation are numerous and include solicitations from the Army, Navy, CBD, DARPA, DTRA, OSD-DHP, and SOCOM.
Between November 10 and December 12, 2010, Topic Authors are available to answer technical questions about the topics. Topic Author’s names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses are listed within each solicitation topic document. Proposals must follow DoD general instructions as well as the requirements of the specific DoD division. Click here to access the DoD SBIR post for full solicitation details.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate has released an SBIR Solicitation. Responses are accepted starting Novemeber 18th and ending January 6th, 2010. Topics in this solicitation are:
- Small Vessel Identification and Tracking Technologies
- Preparation of Environmental Samples for Biological Detection
- Public Safety Broadband Mobile Application for Mission Critical Voice
- Monolithic, Electronically and Widely Tunable Semiconductor-Based Infrared Laser Sources
- Mitigation of Contact Lens, Eye Surgery, Pupil Dilation, and Other Challenges on Iris Recognition
- Improved Firefighter Face Piece Lenses for Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus
Click here to read the full solicitation for further details.
The National Institutes of Standards and Technology has issued it’s 2011 SBIR solicitation. Proposals are being accepted as of November 4th and will be due no later than January 28th, 2011. Budgets may not exceed $90,000 for Phase I. Click here to see the full details and instructions in the solicitation.
The topics for this solicitation are
- Ontologies for Modeling Enterprise Level Security Metrics
- Instrument for Characterization of Environmental Soot Aggregates
- Instrument for Detection of Inhaler Dose Concentration
- mm-Wave Phase Noise Measurement System Using Photonic Delay-Line
- High-accuracy relative angle monitoring apparatus
- Real-time intensity monitoring of laboratory X-ray sources
- Electrical Connectors for Millimeter-Wave Instrumentation
- Standard OWL Reasoning Support for Physical Quantities and Units
- Development of an SCAP Content Creation Tool
- Non-contact microwave measurement of electrical properties of nanofiber materials
- An Automated Test-bed for Assessing System-of-System (SoS) Assurance
- Cloud Computing Security Discriminators
- Monitoring for Complex Information Systems
- Environmental Chambers for an Integrating Sphere-based Weathering Device
- Calibration of Critical Dimension Scanning Electron Microscopes
- RFID-Integrated Sensor Networks
- Sustainable Manufacturing Maturity Model Development
- Dynamic Six Degree of Freedom (6DOF) Vision System
- Development of anion exchange resins for chirality-based separation of single walled carbon nanotubes
- 3D Tip Characterization and Surface Reconstruction voiding
- Ultrafast Optical Detector at 1550 nm
- Orientation-Patterned Gallium Arsenide
- Decision support tools for Sustainable Manufacturing
- A Common Platform for Microrobotics Research
- Semi-Autonomous, Articulated Forklift (SAAF) in Close Proximity to Workers
- Parallel Signal-Processing System for High-Resolution Tomography
- High-Efficiency Visible Light Photon Counters
- High-Resolution Optical Pulse Shaper
- Disassembly Model and Analysis Tools for End-of-service Life Product Treatment
- Sustainability Performance Analysis Tools for Evaluating Manufacturing Processes
- Production of ISMRM/NIST MRI Calibration Phantoms voiding
- Signal Processing Methods for High-Dimensional Microsensor Data Streams
- Development of a MEMS Oscillatory Parallel-Plate Rheometer
- Micro-cruciform tensile stage for XRD and SEM/EBSD
The National Science Foundation has issued it’s 2011 STTR solicitation. Proposals will begin being accepted on October 17th and will be due no later than November 17th. Budgets may not exceed $150,000.
The STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) will require a partnership between a small business and a non-profit research institute (usually a university). The researchers at the research institute must play a significant intellectual role in the STTR project, but the Principal Investigator (PI) must be primarily employed with the small business and the small business must still conduct at least 40% of the technical effort.
The only topic for this solicitation is “Digital Gaming for Education” (DGE). Within that main topic, there are 4 subtopics. Proposals that do not fit within one of these 4 subtopics will NOT be accepted:
Digital Gaming in Education for Learning:
A. Informal (I)
B. Formal (F)
Digital Gaming in Education for Culture and Society:
C. Cross Cultural Dialogue and Discoveries (CCDD)
D. Platforms for Healthy Living (PHL)
Details and instructions are found in the solicitation.
The Department of Defense has pre-issued two solicitations simultaneously: an SBIR (SBIR 2010.3) and an STTR (STTR 2010.B). There are separate topics for each solicitation, so you cannot submit an SBIR proposal for an STTR topic and vice versa. Utilize the DOD Topic Search Engine to find topics that match your company’s capabilities.
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.
NASA has pre-released its 2010 SBIR and STTR solicitations. The full combined SBIR/STTR solicitation will be available on July 19th. The NASA SBIR and STTR 2010 technical topics and subtopics support the NASA Mission Directorates of Space Operations, Aeronautics Research, Science, and Exploration Systems. To write an effective proposal, be sure to understand the purpose and focus of the Mission Directorate–understand how your proposed solution will help fulfill that specific Mission.
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.