Small Business Innovation
Did you know that the U.S. Government Department of Energy (DOE) has a great program for Small Business Innovation?
Based on the findings of a study that showed that Small Businesses innovated 2.5 times more per employee than a Large Business, while a Large Business is three times more likely to obtain government assistance, the Small Business Innovation Research Program or SBIR was established to provide funding to stimulate technological innovation in Small Businesses.
Selected references:
Leading eBook on Creativity and Innovation in Business
Creativity and Innovation Best Practices
Creativity and Innovation Case Studies
The Innovation Index
Top 50 innovative companies in the world
Download Apple's Innovation Strategy and Learn how Steve Jobs made Apple the #1 Innovative company in the world.
Download Now
Selected references:
Leading eBook on Creativity and Innovation in Business
Creativity and Innovation Best Practices
Creativity and Innovation Case Studies
The Innovation Index
Top 50 innovative companies in the world
Acknowledgements:
Department of Energy. For further information on SBIR, click here.
Based on the findings of a study that showed that Small Businesses innovated 2.5 times more per employee than a Large Business, while a Large Business is three times more likely to obtain government assistance, the Small Business Innovation Research Program or SBIR was established to provide funding to stimulate technological innovation in Small Businesses.
Selected references:
Leading eBook on Creativity and Innovation in Business
Creativity and Innovation Best Practices
Creativity and Innovation Case Studies
The Innovation Index
Top 50 innovative companies in the world
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) is a U.S. Government program under the auspices of DOE (that oversees Science and Technology departments) in which federal agencies with large research and development (R&D) budgets set aside a small fraction of their funding for competitions among small businesses only. The primary program purpose is to improve the competitive capability of small research and development businesses with particular emphasis on emerging and under served small firms. The best part is that small businesses that win awards in these programs keep the rights to any technology developed and are encouraged to commercialize the technology.
Program Participation
Each year (around the beginning of October), DOE issues a solicitation inviting small businesses to apply for SBIR grants. The solicitation contains technical topics in such research areas as Energy Production (Fossil, Nuclear, Renewable, and Fusion Energy), Energy Use (in buildings, vehicles, and industry), Fundamental Energy Sciences (materials, life, environmental, and computational sciences, and nuclear and high energy physics), Environmental Management, and Nuclear Nonproliferation. Small businesses must respond to a specific topic and subtopic during the open solicitation period.
Selection Criteria
DOE uses three evaluation criteria for SBIR grant applications: (1) Strength of the Scientific/ Technical Approach, (2) Ability to Carry Out the Project in a Cost Effective Manner, and (3) Impact.
Grant applications are considered candidates for funding if the DOE technical staff member: (1) has no reservations with respect to any of the criteria and (2) strongly endorses the grant application with respect to at least 2 of the 3 criteria. The technical staff member leverages comments from expert technical reviewers.
Phased Program
SBIR has three distinct phases; each phase has a substantial increase in award amount and assistance from the previous phase. Phase I explores the feasibility of innovative concepts with awards up to $100,000 for about 9 months. Phase I award winners compete for Phase II, the principal R&D effort, with awards up to $750,000 over a two-year period. There is also a Phase III, in which non-Federal capital is used by the small business to pursue commercial applications of the R&D. Also under Phase III, Federal agencies may award non-SBIR funded, follow-on grants or contracts for products or processes that meet the mission needs of those agencies, or for further R&D.
Odds of Winning
According to DOE, the Proposal-to-award ratios are about 5-to-1 for Phase I and 2-to-1 for Phase II; although these ratios can change each year based on the program participation and topic awards.
As of FY 2004, the SBIR program had produced 4,638 Phase I awards and 2,013 Phase II awards for approximately $1.867 billion dollars.
Recent Award Winners
One of the Phase 1 winners for FY 2006 is LightCloud Software out of Pleasanton, California. Their topic area is "Biologically Inspired Approach to High Speed Intrusion Detection." Under the SBIR, the company will design and develop software to protect military and corporate networks from worm and virus attacks, and will significantly reduce the vulnerability of networks, thereby safeguarding classified and proprietary data.
Another Phase 1 winner for FY 2006 is Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR) in Menlo Park, California. Their topic area is "Energy-Efficient Process to Dilute Methane Emissions." The company will design a process for a diverse group of dilute methane-enriched emission streams, including those generated in landfills and natural gas processing. The process converts methane emissions into a useful fuel in a cost-effective manner.
Commercial Successes
Many successful companies go on to receive a Phase II award. According to DEO, 70 percent of Phase II projects have led to Phase III funding, and two-thirds of these projects contributed to sales of new products or services.
There are many success stories out of the SBIR program. For instance, a company Advanced Fuel Research based in East Hartford, Connecticut, created Fourier Transform Infrared Products under the SBIR grant. The company filed patents and created sales over $12 million. Spin-off of the original company was sold for $22.9 million.
Another company Deep Web Technologies out of Los Alamos, New Mexico received SBIR funding to research and develop a web-based search tool with relevance-ranking of search results from multiple internet databases. Soon after the core development, this technology was embraced by the U.S. government’s interagency Science.gov Alliance and applied to the interagency portal Science.gov.
Bottomline
The U.S. Government and the DOE has a Small Business Innovation program that gives you *free* money, research assistance and potential market to Innovate and make a commercial product. It is definitely worth considering if you are a Small Business that is planning to undertake new innovations in the technical topics and research areas sought by DOE.
Program Participation
Each year (around the beginning of October), DOE issues a solicitation inviting small businesses to apply for SBIR grants. The solicitation contains technical topics in such research areas as Energy Production (Fossil, Nuclear, Renewable, and Fusion Energy), Energy Use (in buildings, vehicles, and industry), Fundamental Energy Sciences (materials, life, environmental, and computational sciences, and nuclear and high energy physics), Environmental Management, and Nuclear Nonproliferation. Small businesses must respond to a specific topic and subtopic during the open solicitation period.
Selection Criteria
DOE uses three evaluation criteria for SBIR grant applications: (1) Strength of the Scientific/ Technical Approach, (2) Ability to Carry Out the Project in a Cost Effective Manner, and (3) Impact.
Grant applications are considered candidates for funding if the DOE technical staff member: (1) has no reservations with respect to any of the criteria and (2) strongly endorses the grant application with respect to at least 2 of the 3 criteria. The technical staff member leverages comments from expert technical reviewers.
Phased Program
SBIR has three distinct phases; each phase has a substantial increase in award amount and assistance from the previous phase. Phase I explores the feasibility of innovative concepts with awards up to $100,000 for about 9 months. Phase I award winners compete for Phase II, the principal R&D effort, with awards up to $750,000 over a two-year period. There is also a Phase III, in which non-Federal capital is used by the small business to pursue commercial applications of the R&D. Also under Phase III, Federal agencies may award non-SBIR funded, follow-on grants or contracts for products or processes that meet the mission needs of those agencies, or for further R&D.
Odds of Winning
According to DOE, the Proposal-to-award ratios are about 5-to-1 for Phase I and 2-to-1 for Phase II; although these ratios can change each year based on the program participation and topic awards.
As of FY 2004, the SBIR program had produced 4,638 Phase I awards and 2,013 Phase II awards for approximately $1.867 billion dollars.
Recent Award Winners
One of the Phase 1 winners for FY 2006 is LightCloud Software out of Pleasanton, California. Their topic area is "Biologically Inspired Approach to High Speed Intrusion Detection." Under the SBIR, the company will design and develop software to protect military and corporate networks from worm and virus attacks, and will significantly reduce the vulnerability of networks, thereby safeguarding classified and proprietary data.
Another Phase 1 winner for FY 2006 is Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR) in Menlo Park, California. Their topic area is "Energy-Efficient Process to Dilute Methane Emissions." The company will design a process for a diverse group of dilute methane-enriched emission streams, including those generated in landfills and natural gas processing. The process converts methane emissions into a useful fuel in a cost-effective manner.
Commercial Successes
Many successful companies go on to receive a Phase II award. According to DEO, 70 percent of Phase II projects have led to Phase III funding, and two-thirds of these projects contributed to sales of new products or services.
There are many success stories out of the SBIR program. For instance, a company Advanced Fuel Research based in East Hartford, Connecticut, created Fourier Transform Infrared Products under the SBIR grant. The company filed patents and created sales over $12 million. Spin-off of the original company was sold for $22.9 million.
Another company Deep Web Technologies out of Los Alamos, New Mexico received SBIR funding to research and develop a web-based search tool with relevance-ranking of search results from multiple internet databases. Soon after the core development, this technology was embraced by the U.S. government’s interagency Science.gov Alliance and applied to the interagency portal Science.gov.
Bottomline
The U.S. Government and the DOE has a Small Business Innovation program that gives you *free* money, research assistance and potential market to Innovate and make a commercial product. It is definitely worth considering if you are a Small Business that is planning to undertake new innovations in the technical topics and research areas sought by DOE.
Download Apple's Innovation Strategy and Learn how Steve Jobs made Apple the #1 Innovative company in the world.
Download Now
Selected references:
Leading eBook on Creativity and Innovation in Business
Creativity and Innovation Best Practices
Creativity and Innovation Case Studies
The Innovation Index
Top 50 innovative companies in the world
Acknowledgements:
Department of Energy. For further information on SBIR, click here.
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