Panel 2: Avoiding common fatal mistakes small firms make with their proposals

Transcription

1 Panel 2: Avoiding common fatal mistakes small firms make with their proposals NATIONAL SBIR CONFERENCE Nov 12, 2014 Panel Chair: Matthew Portnoy, Ph.D. 4:15 p.m. 5:00 p.m Matthew E. Portnoy, Ph.D., NIH SBIR/STTR Program Coordinator Phone: Amanda Morris, Project Director, EDJ Associates, Inc. (NSF) Phone: Lisa Sobolewski, DHS SBIR Program Director Phone: /17/ Overview Fatal submission issues 1. NIH Submission through Grants.gov and era Commons 12 min 2. NSF Submission through FastLane 12 min 3. DHS Submission through the SBIR Submissions Portal 12 min 4. Commons Application/Proposal issues 5. Q&A 10 min 2 11/17/

2 National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research HHS-NIH High Level Process Overview AOR/SO Find and download announcement, instructions and form package. Prepare application per institution & agency guidelines. AOR submits application to Grants.gov. era downloads application and verifies compliance. PI/SO check submission status and view assembled application in era Commons. National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research Five Step Registration Process Start Early Registration can take 6-8 weeks! 1. DUNS: 2. SAM.gov: 3. Grants.gov: Federal-wide portal to find and apply for Federal grant funding 4. era Commons: NIH s system that allows applicants, grantees and Federal staff to share application/grant information 5. SBA Registry: Must register and attach proof of registration to your application. 4 2

3 National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research Small Business Registration Requirement All SBIR and STTR applicants are required to register with the SBA Company Registry Database Applies to all HHS SBIR/STTR programs, including NIH, CDC, FDA, and ACF Attach proof of registration in the Other Project Information, Other Attachments section of the application See section IV.2 of your FOA instructions for details National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research Help Desks era Commons Help Desk Web: Phone: TTY: Hours : Mon-Fri, 7a.m. to 8 p.m. ET Grants.gov Contact Center Toll-free: Hours : 24x7 (Except Federal Holidays) support@grants.gov Resources: p/help.jsp 6 3

4 7 National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research Corrective submissions must be made BEFORE the submission deadline and overwrite previous submissions. Errors stop application processing and must be corrected Warnings do not stop application processing and are corrected at the discretion of the applicant National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research Top Five Common Submission Errors The top five era Commons errors account for approximately 80% of the total errors. 4

5 National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research Most Common Error #1 Each Senior/Key Person listed must include effort of value > 0 in calendar months, or academic and summer months It s okay to put 0 dollars (no salary), but NOT 0 effort. Must be > 0 effort 9 National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research Most Common Error #2 All application attachments must be in PDF format Use simple PDF-formatted files (no Word files) Do not use Portfolio or similar feature to bundle multiple files into a single PDF Disable security features such as password protection Keep file names to 50 characters or less and use only letters, numbers, underscore, hyphen, space and period Use meaningful filenames Do not include headers or footers Section headings as part of the text (e.g., Specific Aims, Background & Significance) are encouraged Follow guidelines for fonts and margins PDF Guidelines: 5

6 National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research Most Common Error #3 Enter PI Commons Username era Commons username must be supplied in the Credential field of Sr/Key Person Page Enter PI Commons Username Select PD/PI role for each PI For multiple PD/PI applications, select the PD/PI role for each PI and provide their era Commons username in the Credential field of Sr/Key Person Page National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research Most Common Error #4 Organization Name NIH requires the Organization name for all Sr/Key listed. Enter Organization Name Form pre-populates for PI, but NOT other key personnel. 6

7 National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research Most Common Error #5 If box 1=Application and box 8=New, then leave blank If box 1=Changed/Corrected and box 8=New, then enter previous Grants.gov tracking number Otherwise, use Institute and serial # of previous NIH grant/app (e.g., use CA from 1R01CA ) See Application Guide for definition of application types National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research Most Important Piece of Advice Talk to an NIH Program Officer about your application and SUBMIT EARLY (days not hours and minutes)! Program Officer contact information found in the NIH SBIR/STTR Solicitation on Questions about who to contact? sbir@od.nih.gov 7

8 Web Sites NIH Small Business Program Web page era Commons: Electronic Research Administration: Applying Electronically: NIH About Grants: 15 National Science Foundation SBIR/STTR Phase I NSF posts two Phase I solicitations annually, with submission deadlines in early June and December. Solicitations are posted minimum 90 days in advance on our website (March/Sept) NSF hosts a weekly webinar series for 5-6 weeks prior to each Phase I deadline 8

9 NSF Proposal & Awards Process NSF SBIR/STTR Program accelerates the review process and completes Phase II in four months. All Phase I proposals submitted in December 2014 will be awarded with start date of July 1, Phase I Solicitation Topics Broad solicitation topics conform to the interests of the high-tech investment sector - but are not limiting. NSF strongly encourages companies to send an Executive Summary several weeks before the deadline to the appropriate NSF Program Director (by topic area) NSF does not have a black out period but responsiveness of PDs drops sharply as deadlines approach 9

10 Phase I Solicitation Topics Advanced Manufacturing and Nanotechnology (MN) Advanced Materials and Instrumentation (MI) Biological Technologies (BT) Chemical and Environmental Technologies (CT) Educational Technologies and Applications (EA) Information and Communication Technologies (IC) Electronic Hardware, Robotics and Wireless Technologies (EW) Semiconductors (S) and Photonic (PH) Devices and Materials Smart Health (SH) and Biomedical (BM) Technologies Phase I Solicitation Limits NSF currently limits each organization to no more than two (2) proposals per cycle and Principal Investigators (PI) to one (1) proposal per cycle. A cycle includes both the SBIR and STTR Phase I solicitations with deadlines in the same week this December. In other words, if your company submits two proposals in December, they must have 2 different PIs - and be substantively different projects. 10

11 NSF SBIR/STTR Proposal Portal FastLane ( NSF does not accept SBIR or STTR proposals via Small business must register with FastLane first, process can take 2-3 days. Principal Investigator must register with FastLane and login/prepare proposal in system. NSF SBIR/STTR Program does not require or accept Letters of Intent. Planning to Submit? Required registrations for NSF SBIR/STTR Program: FastLane (register both company and PI)* Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS)* System for Award Management (SAM)* SBIR.GOV Company Registry* * All four registrations must be completed prior to proposal submission! 11

12 FastLane Step-by-Step Guide aration_booklet.pdf This User Guide is a 43 page PDF with screen shots of the entire Phase I proposal submission process in FastLane from start to finish. This document is updated regularly, so bookmark the link and download a fresh copy before the next deadline. Proposal Cover Page SBIR proposals cannot have a co-pi; STTR proposals will list the lead from the academic partner as a co-pi. Although NSF encourages companies to collaborate, we do not accept Collaborative proposals in FastLane. Do not mark the proposal as Preliminary 12

13 Proposal Cover Page The Cover Page has a series of federal certifications that must be answered honestly and completely to avoid ever interacting with the NSF Office of the Inspector General If the small business has ever received any SBIR/STTR Phase II funding from the federal government, a Company Commercialization History must be included in the proposal on the NSF template Required Proposal Components Cover Page Project Summary (max 4600 characters) Project Description (max 15 pages) References Cited Current & Pending Support Biographical Sketches Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources Budget and Budget Justification Supplementary Documents Data Management Plan Maximum 3 Letters of Support (optional) SBIR.gov company registry PDF 13

14 Proposal Submission in FastLane FastLane requires that the SRO (Sponsored Research Office) submits the final proposal If the PI has SRO access rights, click Submit SBIR or Submit STTR If the PI does not have SRO access rights, PI clicks Allow SRO Access At this point FastLane will scan and display any compliance errors (red font) and warnings (black font). Errors prevent timely submission, warnings do not. Proposal Submission in FastLane When proposal is successfully submitted, the submission confirmation screen will appear and assign the proposal a permanent 7 digit ID number starting in the first 2 digits of the Fiscal Year (i.e. FY15 proposal numbers are 15xxxxx) Always reference this propoasl number in the subject line of your correspondence with NSF 14

15 Submit Early! Proposals must be submitted via FastLane no later than 5:00 pm (submitter time zone) on the deadline date. Late submissions will be Returned Without Review by NSF. Typically 10% of NSF Phase I proposals are RWR-ed for being submitted LATE. We recommend submitting several days early and making updates/improvements to the submitted proposal in FastLane via Proposal File Update Connect with NSF SBIR/STTR Funding opportunities, news, webinar announcements, and success stories Online: nsf.gov/eng/iip/sbir/ and nsf.gov/eng/iip/sttr/ Quarterly Update Listserv: Send a blank to INNOVATION-SUBSCRIBE- REQUEST@listserv.nsf.gov Channel: NSFInnovationIIP 15

16 NSF Points of Contact NSF SBIR/STTR Program Directors: Peter Atherton Prakash Balan Steven Konsek Glenn H. Larsen Rajesh Mehta Muralidharan S. Nair Benaiah Schrag Ruth M. Shuman Jesus V. Soriano Administrative and compliance questions: Amanda Morris FastLane Help: or DHS SBIR Electronic Proposal Submission Portal 16

17 Two SBIR Programs in DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) Joint solicitation with multiple topics relevant to each organization You may submit a proposal(s) in response to any/all of the solicitation topics. 33 Solicitation Information Can Be Found Two Ways Searching FedBizOpps webpage at Following the SBIR Solicitations link on the DHS SBIR Program Portal at

18 Three Mandatory Registrations In order submit SBIR proposals to DHS, a firm must be registered in the DHS SBIR electronic proposal submission system at Prior to submitting a completed proposal a firm must be registered with the U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA) Company Registry Database at A company must affirm registration in the SBA Company Registry Input the company s SBC Control ID number in the Company Data section of the DHS Cover Sheet Append a copy of the completed SBA Company Registration information as the last page of the Technical Proposal Before an SBIR contract can be awarded, proposing firms must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at Although registration in SAM is not required at time of proposal submission to the DHS SBIR Program, it is highly recommended that Offerors register in SAM during the proposal process 35 First Register in the DHS SBIR Portal To register in the SBIR system, go to the SBIR Public Portal at When on the home page, click the Submissions link in the navigation menu to the left 36 18

19 To Begin the Registration Process Click either the Register link at the top of the page or the Not Registered? link at the bottom of the page. Don t forget to check the box! On the next screen you will be required to enter you company Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and state where your company is a registered taxpayer. 37 First Person in Registers Your Company Fill in all required fields for: Company Information Company Point of Contact Information User Information 38 19

20 Starting a Phase I Proposal Once you have registered, and logged in, you will see the menu to the left with links to help you start a new proposal, manage existing proposals, and track progress of proposals in process. To start a new Phase I proposal click the Phase I link under the Start New Proposal section, select the solicitation, and topic number you would like to submit to, enter a topic title for your proposal, and click Add Proposal to Activity Worksheet. 39 A Complete Phase I Proposal There are 4 components to a Phase I proposal: 1. Cover Sheet 2. Cost Proposal 3. Technical Proposal (uploaded pdf) 4. Briefing Chart (uploaded pdf) 40 20

21 Proposal Cover Sheet The Cover Sheet will be populated with information you enter via the 7 tabs below. Some tabs will be auto filled with data provided at registration. The Summary page provides a preview of all entered information.. Be sure to click Save or Save and Continue before moving to the next tab. Click Complete Cover Sheet button! 41 SBIR Cost Proposal There are six sections/tabs that make up the Cost Proposal section plus a summary sheet: o o o o Section A: Direct Labor Cost Section B: Overhead Cost Section C: Other Direct Costs Section D: G&A Costs o o o Section E: Profit/Cost Sharing Section F: Deliverables and Audit Info Summary: Cost Proposal Summary Be sure to click Save or Save and Continue before moving to the next tab. 42 On Summary tab, if everything is correct, click Complete Cost Proposal button! 21

22 Proposal Activity Worksheet If all of the components of your proposal are marked as Complete, click the Submit Proposal link located in the bottom left corner. Your proposal will not yet be submitted. You must click here to get to the Submit Proposal page! 43 The Final Step: Submit Proposal Page If the status for each form displays as Complete, click the Submit Proposal button to submit your proposal. You must click the Submit Proposal button to complete the submission process

23 Submit Proposal Confirmation Page You will see a confirmation once your proposal has been successfully submitted. Print this page for your records! 45 Proposal Formats Phase I Proposal I. Identification and Significance of the Problem or Opportunity II. Phase I Technical Objectives III. Phase I Work Plan IV. Related R/R&D V. Key Individuals and Bibliography of Directly Related Work VI. Relationship with Future R/R&D VII. Commercialization Strategy VIII. Facilities/Equipment IX. Subcontractor/Consultants X. Potential Post Applications XI. Prior, Current, or Pending Support of Similar Proposals or Awards Proposal Format Phase II Proposal I. Identification and Significance of the Problem or Opportunity II. Phase I Technical Objectives and Results III. Phase II Work Plan IV. Related R/R&D V. Key Individuals and Bibliography of Directly Related Work VI. Relationship with Future R/R&D VII. Commercialization Plan VIII. Facilities/Equipment IX. Subcontractor/Consultants XI. Prior, Current, or Pending Support of Similar Proposals or Awards 46 23

24 Proposal Requirements Proposal Requirements Phase I Phase II Page Limitation 25 pages 50 pages Cover Sheet 1 Pages 1 2 Pages 1-2 Technical Proposal Pages 3 24 Pages 3-49 SBA Company Registry Mandatory Mandatory Information 2 Cost Proposal 3 Page 25 Page 50 Briefing Chart Mandatory Mandatory (Attachment 3) 4 Commercialization N/A If Applicable Report 4 Company Financial N/A Mandatory Information 5 1 Counts as two pages no matter how it prints out 2 Appended to the Technical Proposal, but not included in the page count 3 Counts as one page no matter how it prints out 4 Not included in the page count 5 Company Financial Information must not be included in the proposal, instead it Presenter s must be submitted Name via June 17, per 2003 the Solicitation 47 Common Mistakes Not addressing all requirements Exceeding page number limitations, duration, and dollar thresholds Lack of information in the abstract Lack of information in the project aims section Not differentiating information in the abstract and project aims section Follow proposal preparation instructions and requirements provided in the solicitation! Failure to complete all steps of the submission process Pay attention to all system generated notifications to ensure proposal submission is complete! Submitting at the last minute 48 24

25 Fatal Proposal Writing Mistakes! Failure to address key topic objectives: Include any requested test data Include information on integration of technology and end users Include enough information to meet all goals/requirements of the topic Phase I Commercialization Strategy lacks detail: Must explicitly describe the vision for commercializing the proposed technology and how it will transition in DHS, other Federal Agencies, and/or private sector markets Provide specifics on the market need the technology will address Resumes do not match technical requirements of the topic; key personnel have no relationship to the technology being developed Disconnect between technical proposal and cost proposal: Labor hours for personnel and subcontractors included in the technical proposal must match what is included in the cost proposal. Know the requirements of the solicitation and topic you are submitting a proposal to! 49 Ask for Help When in Doubt! DHS SBIR Helpdesk can assist with Portal registration/login General questions related to proposal preparation and submission Management of your DHS SBIR account Helpdesk hours are Monday Friday: 9:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m. ET Phone: dhssbir@reisystems.com Check the Website Helpdesk section of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) link on the DHS SBIR Portal Check the Reference Materials on the DHS SBIR Portal for detailed info on portal registration and submission training

26 Upcoming Solicitations/Key Dates Solicitation Pre-Release Solicitation Released Deadline for Receipt of Proposal FY 15.1 early December days after pre-release 30 days after solicitation is released During Pre-Release: direct communication with Topic POC is permitted During the open solicitation: communication with Topic POC is via the SBIR Program Office. Questions & Answers will be posted as amendments to the solicitation. For S&T topics: For DNDO topics: 51 The Bottom Line Register and submit early! Refer to the SBIR-BAA Public Portal: Registration and Submissions Training Guide Follow the guidance for SBIR The Training Guide is updated regularly. Bookmark the link and download the guide before the next solicitation opens

27 Common Application Problems - Universal! No Significance Unimportant problem, unconvincing case for commercial potential or societal impact Failure to address topic requirements Inadequately defined test of feasibility Lack of innovation Diffuse, superficial, or unfocused research plan Questionable reasoning in experimental approach Failure to consider potential pitfalls and alternatives Lack of experience with essential methodologies Unfamiliar with relevant published work Unrealistically large amount of work proposed Questions? 54 11/17/