Software Partners & Government Funding

Transcript:

When you find that you have a viable use case for your technology, the excitement starts to build, likely until you start to consider one of the largest barriers to getting the project started: funding.

Funding a new development or significant technology improvement can cost a couple million dollars when you start to consider all of the expenses such as various electrical components, hardware, software, significant design work and testing to prove the value of your technology solution. ¬¬

Sure, you may be bootstrapping the initial design work and self-funding whatever you can – BUT the looming development costs continue to creep up.

This is when you want to begin actively searching for funding opportunities (if you haven’t already started) – and of course, the best money to spend is that of which is not your own.

There are so many valuable programs and organizations that can offer funding or capital, and each funding opportunity has its own unique benefit that may suit your needs compared to another option.

But, today, we are looking to share information with you, our innovative viewers, about the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) more specifically from a software perspective. We here at PSI act as a software partner for those looking for accessible federal programs to fund their next project, with programs such as the SBIR and STTR. We can help you justify the costs to create well designed, quality software and firmware systems for your innovative technology, and ultimately meet your development goals.

Qualifications

The SBIR and STTR programs focus on helping to fund, specifically, United States small businesses working toward scientific excellence and technological innovation.

Both the SBIR and STTR have their own requirements that can be found on the SBIR website, but here is a brief look at what your company will need to qualify for funding through the SBIR and STTR programs.

For the SBIR program, a company would need to be
1. An organized for-profit business in the United States
2. Have over 50% of the business owned by one or more citizens of the              United States
3. Be a small business, meaning less than 500 employees

The STTR government funding also has its own requirements, which include:
1. Being located in the United States and
2. Being either
a. A nonprofit college or university
b. Domestic nonprofit research organization
c. Be a federally funded R&D center.

3 Phases

Both the SBIR and STTR programs takes a three-phased approach to drive development progress.

The initial phase of the SBIR and STTR funding programs assesses the technical merit, feasibility, and commercial potential of a company’s project application to reward them with funding for either 6 months through SBIR or 1 year through STTR.

Once a company and their project are granted the Phase I award, they then qualify to apply for the Phase II award. Within Phase II, the company’s project’s scientific and technical merit, commercial merit, and overall development will be assessed for a possibility of winning 2 years of funding.

Following Phase II funding, the goal of the final phase of the SBIR and STTR development program is to continue to research and design, ultimately to pursue commercialization objectives based on the work achieved in the first two phases.

Phase III of the SBIR & STTR government programs is not funded – because at this point the applicants have opportunities for follow-on Non-SBIR/STTR funds, production contracts for products, processes, or services intended for use by the U.S. Government.

Benefits of Subcontractor

When innovative companies are looking to apply for SBIR and STTR funding for government projects, applicants can benefit from partnering with a subcontractor who has expertise in specific areas of the project. A company of specialized experts, or subject matter experts, to partner with on the SBIR/STTR project can provide help with application reviews and product development or certain engineering disciplines to increase the company’s overall chances in being awarded the SBIR & STTR project funding.

Having an experienced software development partner often eases the reviewing committee’s decision making process as it shows your project has the necessary resources to reach your goals. It takes away much of the potential risk when lacking software engineering expertise, which may otherwise prolong development milestones, or even miss milestones altogether.

In addition to subcontractors, like PSI, being able to help on project funding applications, area specific company partners can further help out on government projects once getting to the development phase of the SBIR/STTR project – since the subcontractor is already knowledgeable about the project from the work done in Phase I, they will be able to quickly jump into the development process in Phase II of the project.

If you feel that your company fits the profile for SBIR and STTR project funding, you can reach out to PSI as a software partner to help with providing a level of effort to complete your software development effort. Additionally, we’ve helped awardees establish software requirements, create a sound software design, and of course, implement each in development. If you have any questions be sure to contact us, we’re always happy to help.