SBIR Proposal Writing Basics: The Purpose of a Phase 1 SBIR/STTR Project
Gail
& Jim Greenwood,
Copyright © 2007 by
The
FY2008 Department of Energy (DOE) SBIR/STTR solicitation (or Funding Opportunity
Announcement, as they’re calling it now), offers the following description of
a Phase I project:: “Phase I is to evaluate, insofar as possible, the
scientific or technical merit and feasibility of ideas that appear to have
commercial potential.” This is a
great summary of what a Phase I proposal should focus on, so we are going to
break it into its key parts in this month’s proposal writing tip.
The
first thing we note about this definition is that a Phase I project is for
evaluation of scientific/technical merit and feasibility of an idea.
Phase I is a study of whether this great idea you have will actually
solve a problem of interest to the agency. Phase
I projects are based on ideas that are yet unproven.
That, in fact, is what justifies the Federal agency giving you a Phase I
award: the theory is that this idea
of yours is so risky, and so uncertain as to its success in solving the problem,
that you as a small business cannot use your scarce funds to prove its technical
feasibility. So the key to an Phase
I project is having an innovative idea, that is yet unproven, but which can be
demonstrated to be technical or scientifically feasible with a modest Phase I
investment by the agency.
The
second thing we note in the DOE definition of Phase I is the “insofar as
possible” qualifier. Basically,
the agency is only willing to invest about $100k (more or less, depending on the
agency) in your innovative idea to see if it is technically feasible.
Your challenge is to scale back what might be a much larger Phase I
project to something you can prove the feasibility of, with only $100k and 6-12
months of effort. We suspect that
DOE has seen a lot of proposals, as have we, in which the applicant is trying to
do too much work in the Phase I project. Therefore, the lesson here is that you
likely will have to limit the scope of what you’d like
to do
in Phase I to fit what you can
afford to do
with limited time and money.
The
third important point in this DOE quote is the phrase “that appear to have
commercial potential.” The
SBIR/STTR programs these days are all about taking innovative ideas in a Phase I
project, perfecting them in Phase II, and then pushing them into the marketplace
in Phase III. If you submit a Phase
I proposal to any agency in the SBIR/STTR program and fail to competently
address the commercialization opportunity or potential of the innovation, then
you are not likely to even receive Phase I funding to prove feasibility.
Why? Because as the DOE quote
suggests, they don’t support Phase I feasibility studies unless they
“appear” to have commercial potential. We
think the use of the word “appear” here appropriately gives you some wiggle
room: the amount of analysis you can
perform on the commercial potential of an idea before you even do a Phase I
feasibility study is probably limited, and the commercialization planning done
before Phase I may be subject to a lot of revisions between that point and when
you are ready to enter the marketplace in Phase III.
But you must demonstrate to the Phase I proposal reviewers that you are
thinking about commercialization, and have some reasonable ideas of what you’d
sell and to whom (and why they’d want to buy it) even at this early stage.
It also is very important to do this early and rough analysis for your
own benefit: after all, why would
you pursue a Phase I project if you do not see a reasonable opportunity for a
long term financial return through Phase III commercialization?