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 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 Basic proposal preparation including and budget preparation Proposal submission process Review process, and time-lines Phase I Reporting strategies Phase II submission rules General Strategies for producing winning proposals

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.

and the role of CITTI

Workshop format and Location

This is a 2/3 day workshop (8am-1:30pm) (no lunch provided). The format will be a mixture of lecture with examples.

Registration

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 Colorado Companies' relationships 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 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."

About the presenter

The workshop will be presented by Dr. Terrance Boult, the El Pomar Chair of Communication and Computation 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 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 a decade, with an over 50% overall success record on his personal proposals. With his help over 40% of the proposal by companies attending last year's CITTI SBIR workshops were successful (with more still pending). Since joining UCCS and CITTI, he has worked with over dozen local companies on 8 successful SBIR/STTR proposals bring over a million dollars to the Southern Colorado Region, as well working with companies from the Bay area and Mass on successful Phase I and Phase II proposals.