NSF SBIR Phase I Grant (NSF 11-691) proposal deadline June 10, 2011

Description

The National Science Foundation has released its program solicitation for SBIR Phase I grants. For those who have never submitted a SBIR grant to NSF, the process is different than that used by NIH. NSF funds Phase I grants for 6 months and a maximum of $150,000. They have 4 broad topic areas with subtopics to choose from. NSF recommends that you send a brief executive summary via e-mail to the appropriate program officer to get feedback prior to submitting the grant proposal. I have done this and received prompt helpful feedback. Similar to the NIH process a company needs both a DUNS number (http://www.dnb.com/us/) and Central Contracting Registration (CCR) (http://www.ccr.gov/), registering for these takes several weeks. NSF uses a submission system called FastLane (https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.jsp). The submission process in FastLane expects the Principal Investigator to initiate the proposal. From experience, the PI needs to create the proposal and then assign editing privileges to anyone else who writes or uploads the grant sections. The grant proposal guide available on the FastLane website gives detailed instructions for proposal preparation but most of the detailed information is in the program solicitation itself. It seems to be easiest to prepare each section, paginate it and the convert it to PDF prior to uploading into FastLane. The budget module is easily filled out through Fastlane with the budget justification uploaded. The FastLane help desk was very helpful to me. They answered the phone promptly and had answers for my questions. The Program Director was also very helpful when contacted with questions. I hope that this reminder about the NSF SBIR submission date and short introduction into the grant process was helpful. If you have questions or need assistance applying for the grants feel free to contact me (Kathrin Copley; KCopley.Consulting@gmail.com)