SBIR Proposal Writing Basics

SBIR Proposal Writing Basics: Keep It Short

Gail & Jim Greenwood, Greenwood Consulting Group, Inc.

We all know about the "KISS" principle: Keep It Short, Sweetie. Simply put, it is better to keep things brief and to the point. That is also true of SBIR/STTR proposals.

How do we know this? First, components of the Dept of Defense (more specifically, Army and Air Force) have put 20 page limits on Phase 1 proposals being sent to them. Second, National Institutes of Health has just implemented new grant proposal restrictions that limit the Specific Aims and Research Plan (now called "Research Strategy") sections of a Phase 1 pro posal to a total of seven pages. So the days of standard, across-the-board 25 page proposals have gone, at least at the two largest SBIR/STTR agencies.

So let’s talk about how you should deal with the trend towards shorter proposals.

First, make sure you CAREFULLY read an agency’s SBIR/STTR instructions before you prepare your proposal. You are looking for two key bits of information, in addition to the usual important guidance on what should appear in your proposal. One is the page limit for that agency (or, in the case of DOD, for that component). The other is what is included in, and excluded from, that page limit. As examples of the latter, USAF and Army have a 20 page limit, but that EXCLUDES the budget, so it actually is equivalent to a 22 page limit, while those of your familiar with NIH realize there are many parts of your proposal that fall outside of the specific aims and research plan portions (e.g., abstract, resumes, resource description, demographic forms). You do not want your proposal tossed out because you exceeded a carefully (or strangely) defined page limit, and you do not want to try to cram your entire NIH Phase 1 proposal into 7 pages when that is not necessary.

Second, get a grip on your background text. An on-going problem with SBIR/STTR proposals is long-winded background discussions. The reviewer needs some background to be clear that you know enough to perform the proposed project, but they do not need to be subjected to every minute piece of data in your head. In fact, you can do a much better job showing your ability to perform the proposed project by providing a detailed work plan or research plan describing what you will do and HOW you will do it.

Third, it is more important than ever that you get someone to review your draft proposal before you submit it. Hopefully you are already getting a review to ensure you have avoided leaps of faith and illogical statements and conclusions, and have covered everything requested in the agency’s SBIR/STTR instructions. Now you need to add a review in which someone who is expert in writing and editing, and who is accustomed to writing and editing marketing materials like proposals, is asked to cut out "needless redundancies," rambling discussions, and unnecessary repetition (some repetition is valuable, some is not, but that is a subject for another article). The good news is that such reviews should not be very expensive, while the bad news is that you need to provide time in your proposal preparation schedule to include them.

There are other things you can and should do but, we will cover them in future articles because we want to keep this short, sweetie….