SBIR still hanging -- Obama promises big small business push in January

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Our Congress, being consumed with forcing through a Health Care bill that most of us don't want, is ignoring most everything else. As predicted, Omnibus Appropriations bills were rushed through this week, but SBIR reauthorization was not included among them. So it'll be January before any more attention is paid to us.

The SBA did get $2 million appropriated for the Federal and State Technology Partnership (FAST) program for State SBIR outreach funding. This hopefully assumes there will be something to reach out for! Unfortunately that money won't go very far. FAST awards have been in the $100K-$150K range. Do the math. But, it's better than nothing I guess -- which is what we had for this the past couple of years.

So, not much to report, and not much to advise y'all to do. We're just hanging. If you get a chance to talk to a legislator (or an aide) during the Christmas recess, do it! They might actually be relieved you're NOT talking about health care.

We do have word from the White House that President Obama will turn his attention to Small Business issues as soon as Health Care is done. We say -- the sooner the better! Perhaps we can get some REAL attention to SBIR and other small business concerns for a change. This lip service we've been getting just isn't cutting it. Frankly, we'll believe it when we see it.

A quick word of memoriam: We were sad to hear of the passing of a real friend to SBIR -- Jim Chern of NASA. He led the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's SBIR/STTR Program and was a frequent speaker at SBIR Conferences. He passed quietly in his sleep while attending the West Virginia SBIR Conference earlier this month. He will be missed.

Boeing did send out its SBIR interest list for the DOD Solicitation 2010.1. Write me if you'd like a copy. And today (Dec 18th) is the last day to pull down copies of the presentations from the Reno SBIR Conference from their website. If you missed doing it and would like a copy of any of the presentations, I've got them all, so write me for that too.

Unless there's something important to relate, I'll take a hiatus from these columns for a bit, and be back in early January with my Annual Predictions. Merry Christmas, Happy Channukah, etc. etc.
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Tick...Tick...Tick...SBIR hangs in the balance

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Are y'all as disgusted as I am?

Our leaders, elected on a campaign stressing openness, keep making inexplicable one-sided closed-door decisions further widening the partisan political gap.

We seem to be telling our enemies how long to hold on before we'll begin to walk away from the battlefield.

We hold a "Jobs Summit" excluding some of the most important job creation advocates because they disagree with the Administration's health care reform initiatives.

Our "overburdened" legislators take time to hold hearings on the embarrassing "Party-Crasher-Gate" while ignoring the economy-busting impact of "Climate-Gate".

A celebrity's melt-down suddenly becomes the most important news story of the year.

I could go on. But I won't. It's too depressing.

December 18th is only two weeks away. We'll see an Omnibus Appropriations Bill introduced at the last moment just before that date. Betcha there will be no time for debate -- let alone time for actually reading it. If it doesn't pass, the Government shuts down. That won't happen.

SBIR is very likely to be tucked into that pile. Supposedly there's a compromise being worked on. Behind closed doors. Of course. So the clock is ticking. Tick...Tick...Tick.

In the mean time, it's "business as usual" at many of the Federal agencies. That includes gathering SBIR proposals. DOD, NIH, DHS, NIST, NOAA, and even DOEd will be accepting applications this month. NSF and DOE just closed their cycles.

Accepting applications may not mean closing the deal on awards, however. If nothing happens soon, all SBIR but DOD's expires at the end of January. So the Agencies may delay actually committing to disburse funds. Oh goodie. Small businesses sure can afford to wait indefinitely. NOT!

So, yes, I'm disgusted.

I also feel helpless. My Texas Senators and my District's Congressman are all in the party being excluded from the closed-door sessions. They're already sympathetic and supportive of the Senate's version of SBIR Reauthorization. So I "preach to the choir" if I push. Those of you with a different situation -- PLEASE GET BUSY!

The presentations from the National SBIR Conference held in Reno last month have been posted on the Conference's website. Here's the link: (http://www.unr.edu/SBIR-STTR2009/Presentations.html). These will only be available until December 18th, so go look and download anything interesting while you can. Be sure to look at my friend Mark Henry's talk on "Reviewing the Reviewers". You'll find my talk on "Evaluating Readiness for Funding" there too.

The folks at Boeing have released their interest list for the current SBIR topics in the NIST solicitation. Write me if you'd like a copy. I expect to see the Boeing DOD list any day now.

And, finally, please check out the Manhattan Declaration. I've signed it. It feels good to make a stand on principle.
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Whither Goest Seed Funding?

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SBIR's future is uncertain. The VC industry is hunkering down and tightening the screws on their portfolio companies. They even look to SBIR's "reform" as a way to "prop up portfolio valuations".

So what is the future of seed funding? We're about find out what those who are in the forefront of the seed funding world think about that.

The National Association of Seed Venture Funds (NASVF) international conference, which brings together hundreds of the most prominent seed and angel investors with technology transfer and economic development professionals, takes place September 14-16th in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Here is a partial list of some of the world class experts that will be speaking:

-Honorable Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack, will talk about his department's big investments in research and development to improve the food industry.

-Rick G. Wade, deputy chief of staff for the US Department of Commerce, will talk about the various programs and ways his department supports entrepreneurship.

-Wendy Kennedy, founder of WendyKennedy.com, Inc., will explain how to turn ideas into financial opportunities.

The SBIR Coach (a member of NASVF) is an invited speaker, and will be on a panel with Wendy Kennedy. Our topic is:

Translating Science into Business When Funding is Tight

History has proven that during times of economic stress is when we see a garden of opportunities – ideas that have the ability to transform markets – witness the Ipod, Google and Amazon during the recession of early 2000. Spotting winning ideas and business models in these uncertain times takes a disciplined, yet creative approach. Savvy investors are even more rigorous in their assessment of risk and return. But what else is needed besides a sound technology and business plan? What types of technologies are being funded at the state and federal levels? This panel will address some key issues funders should consider before they invest in a technology venture in the near future.

For information on the NASVF Conference, go HERE.

There are a whole bunch of SBIR opportunities out there at the moment:

• USDA SBIR (due Sept 3rd)
• NASA SBIR/STTR (due Sept 4th)
• DOE SBIR/STTR (due Sept 4th)
• NIH SBIR/STTR AIDS related (due Sept 7th)
• DOD SBIR/STTR (due Sept 23rd)
• NSF SBIR/STTR (due Nov 17th)
• NIH SBIR/STTR (due Dec 5th)

See the details on The SBIR Gateway, including a matching service for DOD and NASA STTR partnerships.

By the way, Boeing has issued its Interest List for the current DOD SBIR and STTR rounds. If you'd like a copy, send me an email.

I had the opportunity to meet Karen Mills, the new SBA Administrator, at the SCORE National Leadership Conference in Salt Lake City this week. We were both speakers. Her message: DON'T STOP TALKING TO LEGISLATORS ABOUT SBIR!

So, keep on educating House and Senate members. SBIR reauthorization isn't over until it's over.
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SBIR Reauthorization – What are the issues?

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Only three months to go. Time to get serious. The House has begun the process. With any luck our legislators will actually pay attention to the issues, learn the truth, and improve the SBIR Program. We’ve got a tough battle facing us to overcome the lies being told and perception management techniques being used against us.

I actually had an Austin Business Journal reporter call me yesterday and ask me what I thought about the fact that “venture capital participating small businesses would have to leave their drug discovery innovations on the shelf because they couldn’t qualify for SBIR awards any more”.

Oh, Good Grief! She said she got the premise for the story from a Washington DC sister publication. Perception management strikes again. Boy did I give her an earful of the truth. Can’t wait to see what she actually writes in the story she said would be published today.

The VC issue dominates the SBIR reauthorization landscape. It’s important, yes. But it’s not the only issue. In a series of upcoming columns I’m going to highlight each of the issues, and shed some light on what’s important about them. Hopefully it will spur some comments and engage some debate.

Here’s the list of SBIR Reauthorization issues:

1. Eligibility (who may compete for awards)
2. Agency Allocation Base (% of R&D set-aside)
3. Award Caps for Phase I and II
4. Phase I bypassing – should it be permitted?
5. Multiple Phase II awards
6. Phase III funding and required support
7. State (FAST) and Rural Outreach support
8. Funding for SBIR/STTR administration costs
9. Streamlining the process of review and award
10. Special technology priority mandates
11. How long until we reauthorize again?

Some are more contentious than others, but all are important. We’ll discuss them one by one over the next few weeks.

I can see from this Blog’s analytics that we’re being monitored by those in Congress who really want to know what all sides think, so if you have an opinion here’s your chance to be heard. I’ll publish a comment that intelligently approaches an issue, whether or not I agree with it.

Rick Shindell published an issue of his SBIR Insider last evening. Lots of good info about what went on in those House hearings last week, including a video of Jere Glover’s testimony.

And, Rich Hendel sent out Boeing’s NSF SBIR topic interest list a few days ago. I expect to see the DOD 2009.2 interest list any day now. Write me if you’d like a copy of either of these.

Remember to keep up with what’s going on at www.SBIRreauthorization.com

Finally, today’s my lovely wife Kay’s birthday, and I’m taking the rest of the day off to pay some attention to her, including dinner out and some Country/Western dancing this evening at Billy Bob’s. She’s so patient with all of my SBIR travails, I just wanted to recognize her and have y’all join me in wishing her a Happy Birthday!
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Clean & Renewable Energy SBIRs - From the NIH!

I expect Clean and Green SBIR topics from the DOE and the EPA, and even from the DOD, but today's email from the NIH was a real surprise. The NIH is looking for clean and renewable energy SBIR and STTR proposals for projects in a wide variety of applications. This could be a great economic stimulus for small businesses who never considered applying for an NIH grant before. Here's a partial list:

• Technologies to optimize battery usage and/or energy consumption by medical devices (e.g., hearing aids, dental hand-pieces, chairs, lights), imaging technology (e.g., dental X-ray technology, magnetic resonance imaging systems), radiation therapy equipment (e.g., accelerators for proton radiotherapy), or chair/bed-side information technology (computers and displays).
• Technologies to optimize energy consumption during production and delivery of medical radioisotopes and radiopharmaceuticals.
• Development of batteries with increased storage capacity and/or increased number of charge/discharge cycles.
• Patient monitoring technology that decreases transportation to medical facilities.
• Remote diagnostics and medical care.
• Technology development for manufacture of medical device power sources, such as increased energy density, increased number of charge/discharge cycles before battery failure, solar cells, kinetic to electrical current conversion, and fuel cells.
• Circulatory support systems: Implantable rechargeable batteries and alternate power sources and transcutaneous energy transmission systems
• Compact Implantable Defibrillators
• Respiratory support systems (e.g., artificial lungs, ventilators, CPAP machines): Implantable rechargeable batteries and alternate power sources
• More portable oxygen delivery systems with alternative energy sources
• Robotics and computer assisted surgery
• Mathematical and computer modeling of biological systems
• Information systems to coordinate patient management
• Bioinformatics and interactive databases

And that's only about half of the list! Here's the links to the announcement with the full list:

SBIR: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-09-100.html

STTR: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-09-101.html

As you can see, this opens up the NIH funding opportunity to a whole new array of technology companies. It's not just bio-tech and pharma anymore! NIH SBIR and STTR proposals are due by April 6th, so don't delay getting started on this. You'll have to download special Grants.gov templates for preparing proposals for these topics. Use the PA numbers in the URLs in the FON block of Basic Search to do it. Confused? You know who to call for help!

My friend Rich Hendel at Boeing sent me their interest list for the DOD's 2009.A STTR round today. Proposals for that are due by March 25th. Send me an email if you'd like a copy of the Boeing list.

I sent out the SBIR Coach's Newsletter for February yesterday. The Special Topic is "How to Protect Your SBIR Data Rights". Copy is downloadable from the website's Newsletter page.

And, finally, please don't forget to send those Legislator Letters on SBIR Reauthorization. Template letter is on the website. As they say at Nike: JUST DO IT!
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More SBIR Tidbits: Upcoming Deadlines, Boeing interest, SITIS, and other stuff

Everyone's taking a deep breath after last week's flurry of activity to get the NSF and NIH SBIR proposals submitted on time. I hope that everyone was able to jump through the FastLane and Grants.gov/eRA Commons hoops without hassle, although I've only rarely heard of anyone getting through the NIH submission process without having to do a corrected submission -- it's always something!

The NIH did put on a webinar with representatives from the NIH SBIR Office, Grants.gov, and the eRA Commons on-line to ostensibly allow applicants with questions to get them answered. They did a good job. I listened in and did learn some things. Evidently hundreds of questions were submitted via the on-line mechanism, but unfortunately only a very small number of them were able to be answered in the time allotted. It's clear that the NIH proposal submission system has evolved to be so complex that many find it too formidable to deal with. That's a shame. It shouldn't have to be so tough! Anyhow, the PowerPoint presentations the webinar speakers made are available for download from the NIH SBIR web page. Click HERE for a quick link to them.

Now we're into the post-Thanksgiving pre-Christmas push to get DOD, NIST, NOAA,and DHS SBIR proposals written for submission by mid-January, although my experience in dealing with proposal writers says that most will procrastinate until just before the deadline anyhow....Sigh..... DHS proposals are due Jan 5th, DOD and NOAA on Jan 14th, and NIST on Jan 22nd. NIST and NOAA require paper copies delivered by specific deadlines, while DHS and DOD have proprietary submission portal websites. All four of these agencies issue contracts or purchase orders for the work, not grants, so none of them use Grants.gov (hooray!). You should, however, have a DUNS Number and be registered in the CCR. [Remember, the SBIR Coach provides support for start-to-finish Proposal Preparation Coaching or just for Proposal Draft Reviews. Contact me if you'd like to discuss.]

Boeing has released its interest list for SBIR participation and support for the DOD 2009.1 topics. Write me if you'd like a copy. Kudos to Boeing's Rich Hendel for being the most proactive big-company SBIR supporter in the country! According to the information that Rich presented at the SBIR National Conference last month in Hartford, it's paying dividends for Boeing. Are the rest of you big-dogs paying attention?

The DOD officially opened their SBIR submission website for the 2009.1 round on December 8th, so no more communication with Topic Authors (aka TPOCs) is permitted, other than through SITIS, the official on-line system for asking questions and getting answers on the topics. My December SBIR Coach's Newsletter discusses how to use the SITIS system effectively. Write me for a copy of this one, and subscribe to future issues by clicking the "Join" button in the margin on the left of this Blog post.

Not much is happening on the SBIR re-authorization front. The current economic turmoil has everything else on hold. But, we'll turn on the heat as soon as the new Congress convenes.
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Promoting paths to SBIR technology commercialization

The SBIR Coach is at the DOD sponsored "Beyond Phase II" SBIR technology commercialization conference in Palm Desert CA this week. In addition to hearing excellent "technology transition" presentations from NASA, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense, I'm enjoying meeting and chatting with the key SBIR liaisons at some of the country's biggest Prime contractors, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. I'm representing the interests of several clients who can't be here, and have made some very promising contacts for them.

The Agencies and the Prime contractors are actively working together to encourage integration of SBIR funded technologies into systems produced by the larger companies and ultimately deployed into end use. For the SBIR companies it's the follow-on funding (called Phase III) that turns prototypes into products. For the big companies it's the opportunity to integrate innovative bits of technology that improve performance into their systems. For the Agencies, it's solving problems and fulfilling missions. Everybody wins.

The Conference organizers, led by my friend Andy Talbert, have provided all of the presentations on a USB drive given to each attendee -- the welcome replacement to the big books of presentations we used to get! Click HERE (and then click "Agenda") to see the Conference Agenda. If there's a particular presentation you'd like to see and chat about, send me an email and I'll be happy to send it to you.

Today, among other things, we hear much more about the DOD's Commercialization Pilot Program and what the States are doing to support SBIR technology transition into commercialization. More on this in tommorow's post.

Boeing wants to help you win DOD SBIRs and STTRs

The Boeing Corporation continues its support of entrepreneurial technology development by providing a list of Boeing people who are interested in collaborative support of SBIR and STTR projects sponsored by the Department of Defense's 2008.3 SBIR and STTR solicitation. It's very rare that the DOD will offer new STTR topics this late in the year. Typically all STTR opportunities are open only in the Spring.

If the topic you're planning to respond to appears on Boeing's list, it would be a productive strategy to seek collaborative support for your application from Boeing. They'll provide letters of support (when appropriate) with the objective of participating in development (Phases I and II) leading to the ultimate commercialization of the developed technology (Phase III) by integrating it into Boeing solutions.

The DOD will begin accepting proposals on August 25th and proposals are due by September 24th. You have one more week (effectively until August 22nd) to contact the DOD Technical Point of Contact on the topic for clarification of the requirements. All serious applicants are strongly encouraged to do so.

If you'd like a copy of the Boeing list, please send me an email request. My website has my email address.

Boeing wants to help you win NASA SBIRs

The Boeing Corporation takes a proactive view of incorporating SBIR and STTR funded technology development into Boeing programs by scanning all SBIR solicitations for topics of interest to Boeing. They offer collaboration support to companies who wish to include them in the application process (providing letters of support when appropriate) with the objective of participation in development (Phases I and II) leading to the ultimate commercialization of the developed technology (Phase III) .

Boeing just released their Topic Interest list for the NASA SBIR/STTR solicitation that closes on September 4th. If you'd like a copy, please send me an email request. My website has my email address.

Fred