Eileen Chan (Outreach Program Manager, DOE SBIR/STTR Programs) gives a high-level overview of the Department of Energy’s SBIR/STTR grants: the DOE program is the third-largest SBIR/STTR program and has awarded in recent years in excess of $300 million per year for early-stage R&D. The DOE focuses on topics aligned with a threefold mission—clean energy technology development; basic energy and engineering sciences (including instrumentation and advanced measurement tools); and nuclear security (monitoring and cleanup). DOE issues grants (not contracts): awards are non-dilutive and applicant-owned; Phase 0 provides application assistance; Phase I is a 6–12 month feasibility study (max $200k or $250k depending on topic); Phase II supports prototype development and commercialization (typically 2 years, max ~$1.1–$1.6M). The office offers partnering and Tech-to-Market support (contact: Carol Radke) and encourages joining the mailing list and following on social media for FOA announcements and support programs.
Questions this video answers
Third largest of the SBIR/STTR programs.
In recent years in excess of $300 million per year.
11 agencies.
Phase I is a 6–12 month feasibility study; max funding is either $200,000 or $250,000 depending on the topic.
Phase II is typically a 2-year award for prototype development and commercialization; typical maxima are between $1.1 million and $1.6 million.
Chapters
Hi everyone, my name is Eileen Chan. I am the Outreach Program manager for the DOE SBIR STTR Programs office. I have a few minutes here to give you high level overview of the key details of our programs. Our program is the third largest of the SBIR STTR programs. Our grants historically have been in recent years in excess of $300 million a year for, for early stage research and development to develop your technology and take it to the commercial marketplace. Those are the, that's the intent of the SBIR STTR programs. As far as our program is concerned, there's 11 agencies that have SBIR programs. Our programs are focused on the DOE mission. So we issue topics. We issue specific topics that align with the DOE mission. However, I do want to make people aware that we do have a lot of topics. They are much more broad than most people realize. The DOE mission is threefold. We have the mission of providing leadership in clean energy technology development. Everybody's fairly organized, aware of that. We also are. Our mission includes leadership in basic energy and engineering sciences. What does that mean? That means that we're interested in funding technology that will help us better understand energy and physics, how energy behaves, such as even down to the nuclear particle level. So we're looking for better microscopes, better spectrometers, better lasers, instrumentation readout devices. The third part of our mission is enhancement of nuclear security. So we fund technologies that involve monitoring of nuclear threats as well as cleanup of nuclear weapons waste. Because the DOE is tasked with cleanup of the nuclear weapons waste sites around the country, we issue grants, not contracts. And that's very important because you tell us your idea in our applic in the application and if we like your idea, it's your idea to go run with it. You have to do what you said you were going to do in your application. But it is your idea to execute it. We are not expecting something at the end. We are not expecting a prototype at the end of your program. We are just funding your idea and it is non dilutive, so we don't have to pay it back. We do not take a piece of your company. It is your idea to execute with a focus on moving it to the commercial marketplace. The DOE will not be your customer. We have a very popular phase year application assistance program. If you are interested in applying and you've never applied to us before, I urge you to take advantage of our phase zero application assistance program. Our phase one funding opportunity maxes out at either 200,000 or 250,000 depending on the topic. It is a feasibility study. It is an idea that you have. You tell us about your idea and how you're going to prove the feasibility of your idea and it does have to sync up and be responsive to our topics and you will carry out that study over a 6 to 12 month period. If your feasibility study goes well, you're going to want a nine and a half months into your Phase one award, you're going to want to prepare a Phase two application. And that is a study where you're sort of now you've already proven feasibility, you're going to be moving towards prototype development, demonstrating your technology and executing a commercialization plan. Those grants are typically a two year duration and they max out at between 1.1 and $1.6 million as the slide shows Join our mailing list to find out when our funding opportunities come out and other funding opportunities that we announce to our mailing list. Learn about our support programs, application support and awardee support programs. You can always email us with questions and we would love it if you follow us on social media. I also do want to mention that we have a Tech to Market Partnering Assistance Program Manager, Carol Radke. You should check out our partnering page and you can always reach out to Carol. Are there people that you're trying to meet that will help you with your technology development? Whether it's subject matter experts, engineering, design firms, investors you want to work with the national labs. Carol would be happy to talk to you about your partnering needs and I encourage you to reach out to her. So thank you for your time and reach out to our programs with any questions.
