On January 25 the DoD released the new FY-2013A STTR with topics from Air Force, Army, Navy, and DARPA. DoD typically has two STTR solicitations yearly. The first – “A”, is usually the largest.
The solicitation will be open to proposal submission from February 25, 2013 through March 27, 2013.
During this pre-release period (through February 24), you may talk directly with topic authors to ask technical questions about the topics. Their names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses are listed within each solicitation topic.
The STTR program requires the small business concern (SBC) to partner with a research institution such as universities, federally funded R&D centers (FFRDCs) and other non-profit research entities. The SBC must perform a minimum of 40% of the effort while the research institution must perform not less that 30% (thereby allowing a window of up 60% for the research institution).
Also in STTR, the principle investigator (PI) can be an employee of the research partner rather than the small business. However, the small business concern must have at least one employee in a management position whose primary employment (more than 50%) is with the small business and who is not also employed by the research institution.
This solicitation was released before the new size rule was implemented (Jan. 28, 2013), therefore, registering with the SBA’s sbir.gov web site is not necessary. However, certain rules of the policy directive issued on August 6, 2012 are in force.
If you have participated in the DoD SBIR/STTR program in the past, it may be worth noting that the ‘Important‘ box on page one of the solicitation indicates:
Solicitation Changes:
As a result of program reauthorization, the solicitation has been EXTENSIVELY rewritten and follows the changes of the SBIR/STTR reauthorization. Please read the entire solicitation carefully prior to submitting your proposal.Please go to http://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/USSBA-4cada5# to read the SBIR/STTR Policy Directive issued by the Small Business Administration.
For more information, contact the SBIR/STTR Help Desk at 1-866-724-7457 or sbirhelp@brtrc.com.
As with every solicitations, it is VERY IMPORTANT to READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY, not only the overall DoD instructions, but those of each agency component as well. With the recent rule changes, this is a MUST! There are substantive differences.
The DoD solicitation is available on their web site at: http://www.acq.osd.mil/osbp/sbir/solicitations/sttr2013A/index.shtml
For more information, contact the SBIR/STTR Help Desk at 1-866-724-7457 or sbirhelp@brtrc.com.
