Gail & Jim Greenwood, Greenwood Consulting Group, Inc.

Copyright © 2000 by Greenwood Consulting Group, Inc.

A winning SBIR proposal has to meet two different but very important criteria. Those criteria are the quality of the idea being proposed, and the way in which you present your idea. In other words, you’ve got to have a good idea that is the basis for the project you propose to perform, and you have to present that idea well enough to communicate it effectively to the proposal reviewer.

What constitutes a good idea when it comes to a Phase I SBIR proposal? Mike Crowley of National Science Foundation says it has two components: "gee whiz" and "who cares" (sounds like an Abbot and Costello routine, doesn’t it?). "Gee whiz" is the positive response that you get when you propose to do something new, innovative, creative, different—an interesting but risky approach to a particular problem or opportunity. It’s that risk that helps justify the government spending money on the research, so technical risk is a key part of your Phase I proposal. "Who cares" refers to the importance and relevance of what you are proposing. If you are proposing a cure to a very rare disease that only afflicted one person and a bus killed them years ago, then it’s hard to argue that anyone cares about spending time, effort, and money on the cure. "Who cares" also is a problem when you propose a "gee whiz" idea but to the wrong agency—for example, don’t propose a more fuel efficient engine to the Department of Transportation’s SBIR program, because fuel economy is an issue for Department of Energy, not DOT. Do your homework: talk to the agency’s SBIR program managers, read the solicitation, and peruse their website to make sure your ideas and the agency’s priorities are consistent.

So the first part to a successful SBIR proposal is proposing an innovative solution to a high priority problem that is relevant to the agency to which you are applying. The second part is how well you present your innovation to the reviewer.

You may have a cure for arthritis (and God bless you if you do), but you likely can’t get it funded through the SBIR program unless you can clearly convey your solution to the agency. In addition to clarity, it has to be presented within the rules of SBIR in terms of proposal length, content, margin width, and related issues. Simply stated, make sure you follow the solicitation instructions.

We see a lot of Phase I proposals that seem to pass the good idea criterion but then fail badly on the good presentation one. The worst one we’ve seen is one fellow’s idea for a device that was apparently good enough to have caught the attention of a Fortune 500 firm that was interested in teaming on the commercialization of the technology if it proved feasible. But his draft Phase I SBIR proposal was a single sheet with only a graph and a few words on it.

In summary, make sure you have a good idea that is creative but technically risky and that is relevant to the agency to which you are proposing. Then take ample time and effort to write a clear, complete proposal that gives your idea the best chance of being understood and considered on its merits by the agency’s reviewers.