Preparing your first grant proposal can appear daunting. After all, YOU know why your work is important but how do you explain this to the funding agency? For businesses, it helps to reframe the grant proposal as a business pitch to the government. After all, you are asking for an investment in your business and one that takes no equity. As the saying goes, “Nothing is free”, and the same is true here. Federal grant funding is not “free money”—you are asking the government to invest in your industry on behalf of the American people because that investment, in turn, will deliver benefits to the American people. If you want to be awarded this investment, you need to clearly describe why your technology and company are worth investing in.
The SBIR/STTR program seeks to invest in promising technologies at early stages of development. Typically, these are innovations that are too early to successfully obtain private investment. The SBIR/STTR program provides the necessary capital to test an initial proof-of-concept and then mature the technology to a state where you can obtain private investment to further mature the technology for commercial infusion OR you can obtain further public investment to mature the technology for public infusion (where the government becomes your customer).
A clear and compelling grant proposal needs to include the following elements.
1. Significance
What is the problem that you are solving? What is the unmet societal and market need that you are addressing?
Can you quantify how important this need is in society?
Who does it impact and what is the magnitude of the impact?
How are the impacts felt in society and the marketplace?
What are the current solutions available for this problem?
What is currently available in the marketplace to address this problem? Are these solutions effective? If not, how are they lacking? How have competitors tried to address this problem and market need?
This is your opportunity to provide the foundation for the importance of your proposed work and your market analysis. Federal investment in R&D is focused on bringing technologies that improve the well-being of the public. For this reason, it is important to quantify and qualify the potential benefits to society if your technology is successfully developed.
2. Innovation
Why is your technology different?
What is your proposed innovation to address the problem and market need?
How is your proposed technology different than current or previous attempts to address this problem?
What new scientific principles are you testing?
What are the major technical risks that you will overcome with the proposed work?
Is your technology patented or can it be patented in the future? (Have you explored your freedom-to-operate?)
This is your opportunity to differentiate yourself from current or future competitors. The government wants to ensure that its investment in you will yield a technology which you can license and/or sell and which will ensure profitability for your company as well as sustainability of your technology in the marketplace.
3. Research Plan
What are your major technical objectives for the project?
What is your overall research goal for this project? (Remember that a Phase I proposal is for proof-of-concept work.)
Will you develop a new method, demonstrate a new scientific principle, create a prototype, etc.?
What do you have to demonstrate during the research project to show that your innovation is both technically viable and commercially viable?
What is the research plan you have developed to address these technical objectives?
What are the steps you will take to address each of the technical objectives?
Will you need to develop new methods to quantify results or will you use previously developed methods?
How will you know when you have successfully completed each proposed task?
How do the results of each task impact the other tasks in the work plan?
What is the associated timeline to accomplish each of these tasks?
How are you mitigating technical risks in your research plan?
How does this research plan fit into the full technology maturation process?
Assuming the proposed project work is successful, what additional work will be needed for commercial or public infusion?
Will you perform this follow-on work yourself or will you require R&D development partners?
This is your opportunity to present a clear research plan intended to overcome technical risks and quantify technology performance. The results of this project should allow future investors, whether grant reviewers, loan officers, or private investors, to predict the success of achieving a fully commercialized technology.
4. Commercial Strategy
What is your go-to-market strategy?
Are you intending to license the technology or manufacture and sell?
Will you seek partnerships for commercial infusion of your technology?
What is your financing strategy?
What additional resources will you require post-Phase II to achieve a commercialized technology?
What is your plan to obtain these resources? Will you seek private investment? Will you take on debt?
What is the proposed timeline to obtain these necessary financial resources?
This is your opportunity to showcase your knowledge of the particular market sector you are targeting. The SBIR/STTR program is intended to get technologies from the lab bench to the marketplace and requires equal parts scientific rigor and business acumen.
5. Team and Environment
Who are the members of your team?
What is the education, experience, and particular expertise of each team member?
What role will each team member have in the success of the project?
How will the team functions, communications, and data sharing be organized to complete the project?
What is the research environment for the proposed work?
Do you own or lease R&D space? Manufacturing space? Office space?
Do you have access to necessary space and equipment to complete the work?
Do you have relationships with facilities (e.g., machine shop, sequencing lab, high performance computing, greenhouse, etc.) necessary to complete the work?
Do you have access to additional resources necessary for technology commercialization?
Are you a member of a business incubator?
Are you a member of a relevant business group or trade group?
This is your opportunity to describe the resources available to you to ensure project success. It does not matter if you have the most innovative solution if you do not have the resources necessary to complete the proposed work. Having a strong and diversified team coupled to a commercialization-focused R&D environment de-risks both the project research and future commercialization of the technology.
Remember that your SBIR/STTR proposal is a petition for the federal government to invest in a technology that will be of importance to the well-being of the public and commercially viable. Furthermore, the proposed technology must be NOVEL. The novelty of your proposed technology is the basis of the inherent technical and commercial risk and the federal government invests in promising novel technologies to provide this necessary de-risking. I like to tell my clients, “No one is getting a federal grant to build another pizza shop.”