SBIR Workshop: Funding Your Innovations with Government Money

On Saturday, October 24, 2009, the DFW MIT Enterprise Forum and the DFW MIT Club presented a Workshop to help individuals and firms learn how to win SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) contracts and grants.

The Workshop was co-sponsored by TECH Fort Worth, who provided the venue and some great assistance. Our thanks to them!

Here are the slides that were presented at the Workshop.

Nick Lawrence, who has personally written and won nearly a score of SBIR awards, presented the Workshop. He started with an overview of the SBIR program, what firms are eligible, the credentials needed to be Principal Investigator, and how to strategize and plan your SBIR effort.

The Workshop then focused on the proposal. We examined in detail how it should be structured and what each section should contain. We emphasized clear, simple communications in the technical portion of the proposal, concise language, and not wasting the reviewers’ time. The cost proposal should be as elaborate as necessary, but definitely as simple as possible.

Next, we turned to the “registration” process. Doing business with the Federal Government requires you to have obtained certain numbers and codes, such as a Taxpayer Identification Number, a DUNS code, a CAGE code, and both SIC and NAICS codes. You need to have online accounts with Central Contractor Registration, with ORCA (online reps and certs), with WAWF (Wide Area Work Flow, used for invoices and payments), and potentially several others. It is not hard to get all of this done, but it needs to be done in a certain order or you will encounter delays. And it needs to be done well ahead of the time when you submit your proposal.

Finally, we covered the substantial benefits for your firm to win an SBIR award. These benefits go beyond the financial support such an award provides. Under certain broad circumstances related to your SBIR project, your firm becomes entitled to “sole source” treatment by Federal Agencies. You retain principal “data rights” (data sets and software) and patent rights for work you do under such a sole source contract. These contracts can be for your products, production, services, R&D, or any combination.

The SBIR Workshop was very well received by the participants. The Workshop filled up and sold out early. We already have several people signed up for a repeat of the Workshop in the near future. Subscribe to our newsletter to be kept informed, or check back often with the front page of this website.