SBIR/STTR Proposal Workshop by CITTI and UCCS

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 2004 and to help us move Colorado up in the overall SBIR/STTR funding pool.

This workshop, for local small businesses and entrepreneurs, is being put on 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/creating topics Forming teams and doing background research for the proposal Doing worksheets on potential topics of interest Proposal preparation including and budget preparation Strategies for producing winning proposals Proposal submission process Review process, and time-lines Phase I Reporting strategies Phase II submission rules

Who should attend?

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

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.

Workshop format and the role of CITTI

This is a full day workshop (9am-5pm) with a continental breakfast and breaks provided; lunch will be on your own. The format will be a mixture of lecture and interactive sessions, with a few worksheets to be filled out by attendees. The worksheets will be used to reinforce the concepts covered in the workshop and also to support our individualized follow up after the meeting.

The SBIR/STTR program fits tightly with 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 your relationship with CITTI, 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 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.

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."

Location and Registration Information

About the presenter

The workshop will be presented by Dr. Terrance Boult, the El Pomar Chair of Communication and Computation at UCCS. Dr. Boult has nearly 2 decades of successful grant writing experience, raising tens of millions for his research at Columbia and Lehigh Universities as well as UCCS. Dr. Boult has been a CTO of a startup high-tech company and consultant to numerous small companies. He has been actively involved in the SBIR and STTR program for years, with an over 50% personal success record. In the past 5 years he has led or played a major role in 10 successful Phase I proposals and 4 successful phase II proposals with 2 Phase II pending. Since joining UCCS and CITTI, he has worked with over half a dozen local companies on (pending) SBIR/STTR proposals.