SBIR/STTR Proposal Workshop by U. Colorado at Colorado Springs & CITTI

Workshop format and Location

The workshop will be held on Janurary 9, in conjunction with IEEE WACV/MOTION workshops at Copper Mountain Resort. SBIR Workshop attendees can take advantage of IEEE WACV/MOTION Workshop room rate (from $113 a night) at Copper Mountain Resort, see the WACV/Motion accommodations page for details on housing and ski discounts. Note the cutoff date for cheaper rooms is Dec 8, so don't wait for Christmas.

This is a 7hr day workshop (3pm-10pm) (A buffet dinner is included). The format will be a mixture of lecture with examples. Sample proposal and budgets will be provided in eletronic form, and they will have free WIFI.

Program schedule:
Wednesday, January 9, 2008

2:30-3:00 - Pre-meeting Snack Break

3:00 - 4:00 SBIR Workshop Starts with SBIR/STTR Program Overview

4:20-4:35 - Coffee Break

4:35 - 6:00 SBIR/Topic Selection, Starting the Proposal

6:00-7:00 - Dinner Buffet (included)

7:00- 8:40 - Proposal Writing. Phase I reporting and Phase II submission rules
Budget Preparation/Accounting

8:40- 8:55 - Coffee Break

8:55 - 10:00 - Review process, and time-lines
Intellectual Property and Teaming

General Information

SBIR/STTR funding is government R&D funding that requires no repayment, no equity dilution and no "external control" . In 2002, Colorado companies won over $78 million in SBIR/STTR funding of the $1.3 Billion available for SBIR/STTRs, making us the 5th most productive SBIR/STTR state. This workshop is intended to help you compete for a share of the $1.6 Billion available for 2007 and to help us move Colorado up in the overall SBIR/STTR funding pool.

This workshop, for small businesses and entrepreneurs, is being put on by Dr. Boult (supported by the Colorado Institute for Technology Transfer and Implementation (CITTI) and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. The goal of the workshop is to review the SBIR/STTR program and what it takes to produce winning proposals. It will include

A brief SBIR/STTR program introduction
The size and scope of the various agencies SBIR/STTR programs
Finding topics
Forming teams and doing background research for the proposal
Basic proposal preparation including and budget preparation
Proposal submission process
Review process, and time-lines
Phase I Reporting strategies
General Strategies for producing winning proposals

Who should attend?

The workshop is intended for budding entrepreneurs, small business owners, and faculty, who are interested in innovative research funding - even if you don't have a technical staff or a business. SBIR/STTR programs offers the potential for partnerships for innovation, and UCCS/CITTI hopes to play a role in helping build such partnerships. For that reason the workshop may also be of value to technologists (and faculty) that have innovative ideas and are seeking business partners, or to companies looking to partner to gain/advance technology.

Small businesses must meet certain eligibility criteria to participate in the SBIR/STTR program. They must be:

American-owned and independently operated with < 500 employees
For-profit (but not necessarily profitable)
SBIR only: Principal researcher employed by business (need not be Ph.D., but must be able to technically project)
For STTR, small business must partner with US University or non-profit R&D organization

Non-Incorporated businesses (Sole proprietor and Partnership) are allowed. In fact more than 35% of past awards have been to companies with < 25 employees.

It is important to realize that not all of the SBIR/STTR funding is for "high-technology". There are programs from the Department of Education, USDA, Department of Commerce, Department of Transportation, National Geospatial Agency as well as the more traditional High-technology focus of programs from NIH, DOD, DHS, DOE, NSF, NASA. The key component is that they all focus "research" in their respective area. However, if you don't feel you have the technical background for research, but your business needs research to succeed and grow, then the SBIR/STTR program may provide a means for you to partner and get some R&D funding.

Registration

Registration is Online accepting credit cards and checks, with preregistration before Jan 4 rates of $75 for Colorado State Residents or women/minorities, and $125 for others. (This is about our cost, given costs for breaks, dinner and AV). On site registration will be $25 more, and only Cash or Credit.

The SBIR/STTR program fits tightly with UCCS/CITTI's long term mission. Unlike some "SBIR workshop" programs, CITTI's primary mission is to "assist creative individuals in transforming technological ideas into economic opportunity" and we do so by working with the community. This workshop is intended to start or strengthening Colorado Companies' relationships with CITTI and CU, and is a part of our ongoing support of technology transfer within Colorado. The workshop will start you down a path of proposal preparation with the expectation that you will continue to interact, when you feel necessary, with CITTI and possibly with faculty at the University of Colorado. Attendees of the workshop from Colorado Companies will be encouraged to have (no cost) individualized followup meetings with Dr. Boult and other members of CITTI as the company prepares their SBIR/STTR proposals.

The worksheets and notes for the workshop will be posted about a week before the meeting with the location/password emailed to registered participants.

Comments from past workshops

Enjoyed presentation - many items highlighted & was more specific on items that previous SBIR presentation I attended.
Lots of valuable information. Terrance really knows his stuff.
Thanks for getting a tremendous amount of info into a short time -- and for the advanced mailing of slides/notes for review & follow-up use.
Good program & informative/very helpful in making me think about all phases of SBIR -- what can be done & when. Learned SBIR/STTR a lot different from RO-1 research grant.
Valuable & eye opening. Will recommend the fall version to friends
I got a lot more information about how to go about this than I expected.

Here is what Brenda Griffith, CEO of Active Artz has to say about it:

"Active Artz has greatly benefited from the outstanding technical support provided by the CITTI organization. The CITTI organization aided Active Artz in preparing a complete and competitive SBIR proposal." Active Artz, like many of our partners, worked with us to win an SBIR grant. See our Successes page for more examples our our effectiveness.

About the presenter

The workshop will be presented by Dr. Terrance Boult, the El Pomar Chair of Innovation and Security at U. Colorado at Colorado Springs. Dr. Boult has nearly 2 decades of successful grant writing experience, raising tens of millions for his research at Columbia Univ, Lehigh Univ and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Dr. Boult has been involved in 3 startup companies, all of which have used SBIRs as part of their growth strategy. He has been actively involved in the SBIR and STTR program for a decade, with an over 40% overall success record on his personal proposals. With his help over 30% of the proposal by companies attending past CITTI SBIR workshops were successful (with more still pending). Since joining UCCS and CITTI, he has worked with over dozen local companies on 16 successful SBIR/STTR proposals bringing over 6.5 million dollars to the partner companies and the University. Dr. Boult has partnered with many companies in the Southern Colorado Region, as well working with companies from the Bay area, Virginia, and Boston area on successful Phase I and Phase II proposals.

EPIIC is deeply involved in the new Bachelor of Innovation^TM degree at UCCS, working with community companies on technology transfer.