SBIR Proposal Writing Basics: DOD Phase I SBIR Proposal Pointers for the FY2005.1 Solicitation

With the Department of Defense’s FY2005.1 solicitation deadline next week, we wanted to offer some advice to folks submitting proposals for this round of SBIR funding. Note that not all DOD components are participating; only Navy, Air Force, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), Chemical & Biological Defense Program (CBD), Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and Special Operations Command (SOCOM) are in this first of three DOD SBIR solicitations in FY05.

First, some DOD components invite a base Phase I project and a Phase I option project (in the FY2005.1 solicitation, only Navy and CBD do this). You should always request the option, because it provides the most money that you can get for Phase I with that DOD component, and because it shows the DOD that you are anxious to move the project forward as expeditiously as possible. Make sure, however, that you understand that the base project is where you need to conduct the primary or main research that culminates in a conclusion about the feasibility of your innovation—do not continue the feasibility effort into the option period. There are two reasons for this: one is that the DOD’s decision to invite you to submit a Phase II proposal comes from what you have accomplished in the base Phase I project, while the other is that the start of the option tasks will not be approved by DOD until they have decided to give you a Phase II award. Think of the Phase I option as a time to initiate the Phase II effort, not to finish up the Phase I feasibility study.

Second, go back and carefully re-read the instructions, both at the front of the FY2005.1 DOD solicitation and at the beginning of the topic list for the component to which you are applying. You are responsible for compliance with both sets of instructions (and, if there is any discrepancy, you are to follow the instructions for your component vs. the general DOD ones). Each component has a little different spin on what they want, and if you are not careful you are going to miss these important differences. For example, if you are applying to Navy, some of the topics allow a $30k/3 month option while others allow an option of up to $80k/6 months, while if you are applying to Air Force you need to show how the four deliverables required by USAF are included in your proposal. You may want to ask someone who has not been involved in drafting your proposal to go back and compare the general DOD and specific component instructions with your proposal to make sure you haven’t missed anything. Failure to respond to a component’s instructions may lead to your proposal being rejected.

Third, re-read the topic to which you are responding. DOD topics often are very specific about what they want to see as part of the Phase I effort, yet many proposals we read from companies submitting to DOD fail to include these requirements. If the topic, for example, says the DOD component expects you to develop a list of criteria against which the current and proposed solutions can be evaluated, you need to state in the work plan how, when and by whom these criteria will be developed in your project and how they will be used to compare the existing solution versus yours. If you make any deviation from these requirements, we recommend you first get concurrence from the topic authors and then explain and justify the deviation in the proposal.

Fourth, note the deadline for FY2005.1 proposals: 6:00 am, EST, January 14, 2005. Some SBIR calendars indicated it would be January 15^th, but DOD went with the 14^th so you need to plan accordingly. And don’t try to upload your proposal at 5:58 am on the 14^th—several times in the past, a lot of companies tried to send their proposals to DOD at the last minute, the pipeline got clogged, and the proposals were not received on time and therefore were tossed out. This obviously is not a desirable outcome to your many hours of hard work crafting a great proposal, so plan to upload your proposal far in advance of the deadline.

Make sure that your commercialization plan for your innovation addresses how the DOD will use it and how you will get it into their systems, programs, and/or applications. As a rule, DOD does not fund a project unless it sees itself as the primary beneficiary of the outcome (and in the case of Army, Air Force and Navy, the primary beneficiary is the component which is funding the Phase I). Don’t make the DOD reviewer guess whether you know this—state as specifically as you can how and where DOD will use your innovation in Phase III. And give them every reason to believe that you know, at the end of Phase II, how to get this innovation into their hands.

Finally, take one last look at www.dodsbir.net/solicitation/sbir051/modlist.htm where last minute changes to the FY2005.1 solicitation appear that may impact your proposal. For example, Air Force deleted one of its topics in December, which is definitely important if you were about to do three all-nighters finishing your proposal on that topic.

Best of luck to you all as you put the finishing touches on those great DOD Phase I SBIR proposals. With a little extra care and attention to detail, you may be able to go beyond "great" and reach "funded."