SBIR Tips
As part of last month’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, the Butler Venture Accelerator had program participant Soumya Roy M’15 share SBIR tips he learned from a training he attended with Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/ Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR). SBIR is a grant program designed to stimulate technological innovation in the private sector and strengthen the role of small businesses in meeting Federal Research and Development needs. STTR requires the Small Business to team up with a university or a research institute, while it is optional for SBIR program.
To be eligible to apply for the program, the company or project needs to meet certain requirements:
- Research towards high risk technological innovation
- Company with less than 500 employees
- At least 51% owned by US Citizens or Permanent Residents
- Principal Investigator must be working elsewhere less than 50% (or 75%, depending on agencies) during the contract or grant period. Principal Investigator must be primarily working for the grantee.
Roy pointed out that this program is for companies that are using new technology to build a better product. As the programs’ objective is to promote high risk technology, Roy recommended to emphasize the point and to be aware of the important criteria in writing proposal.
Proposals are typically 20 pages along with electronically completed form including company information, team, principal investigator, budget, etc. With total funding of $2.38B, SBIR/STTR is the largest Federal program for the small business inventors. Be sure you take advantage of open opportunities. For more information, please visit http://ww.sbir.gov and http://www.zyn.com.