Common Challenges in SBIR/STTR Proposals

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) federal programs provide non-dilutive funding to support ideation and commercialization of groundbreaking technologies and are invaluable to small business development. SBIR and STTR programs are also highly competitive.  Successful preparation and submission of proposals may be very challenging for inventors who have no previous SBIR or STTR experience.

Participation in the SBIR and/or STTR programs requires a paradigm shift – inventors should be able to demonstrate their superior technical and scientific skills AND be able to think like business-people to demonstrate that their Research and Development (R&D) efforts may result in the development of successful commercial products.  The webinar will be very useful for SBIR/STTR newbies AND for inventors with previous SBIR/STTR experience who want to improve the efficiency of their application submission.  This webinar covers multiple topics and offers suggestions which will, undoubtedly, strengthen your future proposals.

This 45-minute recorded webinar provides a detailed rundown of common weaknesses of SBIR/STTR proposals. Potential pitfalls include:

• lack of innovation and technical risk;
• non-optimal selection of the PI;
• lack of team’s commercialization expertise;
• weak commercialization plan;
• unrealistic revenue projections; and
• developmental timeline.

Presented by:   Christian Parmelee, Senior Consultant, Foresight Science & Technology.

This class is generously sponsored by Alaska EPSCoR and the SBDC Trend Program and provided to you free of charge.