Gail & Jim Greenwood, Greenwood Consulting Group, Inc.

Copyright © 2003 by Greenwood Consulting Group, Inc.

Virtually all of the SBIR/STTR agencies ask, as part of your Phase 2 proposal, to summarize your Phase 1 project. The instructions often tell you what to include, but here are some specifics that you need to consider in preparing this summary.

First, do not assume that the reviewer will see your Phase 1 proposal, report, or any other documentation. Too many Phase 2 applicants basically say "see our Phase 1 report" in summarizing the project and the outcomes. Unfortunately, the reviewer may never see that report, and may not remember what you said in your Phase 1 proposal (or even were around when it was reviewed). Therefore, you need to concisely summarize what you proposed to do, what you did, and what the outcome was.

Second, avoid having to tell the reviewer that you didn’t do what you said you were going to do. What’s wrong with saying "well, yeah, we did plan to do X, but we decided instead to do Y"? Never mind that it means you are in violation of the terms of your agreement with the government. You’ve also left the negative impression that you do not live up to your commitments or do what you say you are going to do. That will not help you as you ask for $750k for Phase 2. Any changes in scope or personnel should have been discussed with and cleared by the agency technical and contractual/grant staff before you made them.

Third, avoid having to admit that you substituted lesser qualified personnel on your Phase 1 project. Again, there may be a contractual issue if your agreement with the government obligated you to provide certain "amounts" of specific individuals on the project. But you also leave the impression that you tend to tout your high level people in the proposal but use less qualified folks once the award is made. Some agencies refer to this as "window dressing," and none of them like it. Once again, any changes in staffing need to be discussed with and approved by the agency before you make them.

Fourth, leave the impression that commercialization is important to you. Your Phase 1 summary, in addition to talking about the technical work, also can tell the reviewer about all the important activities you’ve undertaken relative to the commercialization effort. You do not want to reviewer to think that you’ve done and thought little about commercialization during the Phase 1 project. You also do not want to say (here or elsewhere in the Phase 2 proposal) that "we’ll focus on commercialization during the second year of the Phase 2 project." That’s too late to start on a process than can take years to do.

Fifth, clearly state that you proved feasibility in Phase 1. That’s the purpose of Phase 1, and if you don’t prove feasibility you cannot proceed to Phase 2 (it makes sense--why would the Government pay you do the R&D on an infeasible project??). Therefore, the reviewer is looking for clear statements along the lines of "we proved the feasibility of our innovation in Phase 1." These statements should be found in the abstract, and throughout the Phase 1 summary. The summary also should provide back up for that claim: what did you have to do to consider your approach feasible, what results did you get, and how did those results convince you (and hopefully the reviewer) that your approach was feasible? This is all a lot easier if, in your Phase 1 proposal, you clearly (and quantitatively, if possible) stated your criteria for deeming your innovation as feasible.

Finally, this section should avoid telling the reader that you weren’t able to prove feasibility in Phase 1 so you want to continue working on it in Phase 2. Remember that Phase 1 is the feasibility study portion of SBIR/STTR, and Phase 2 is the main R&D effort. You qualify for Phase 2 consideration if and when you prove feasibility. If you haven’t proven feasibility yet, then you need to do it before writing the Phase 2 proposal, even if it means taking a no cost extension during which you finish the feasibility effort on your own nickel. Just be sure to avoid prolonging the Phase 1 effort for so long that you miss any deadline your agency has on your Phase 2 proposal submittal.

In conclusion, the summary of your Phase 1 project is a very important part of your Phase 2 proposal. It needs to concisely summarize what you proposed to do, show that you did what you said you’d do (and with the personnel you said you’d use), and convince the reviewer that your approach was feasible. You are trying to show that your past performance helps justify the agency’s Phase 2 investment in your project. Make sure that you give the reviewer every reason to be impressed with you and your project, and to trust that you will do a terrific job in Phase 2.