Melinda Kaufman from USDA SBIR/STTR explains the program's funding: Phase I awards $125k-$175k over 8-12 months, Phase II awards $600k over 24 months. Phase I success rate runs about 15%, Phase II 45-50%. The program has $34 million total and offers up to $50,000 in business assistance for Phase II awardees.
Questions this video answers
About $34 million.
Phase I awards range from $125,000 to $175,000; SBIR duration 8 months; STTR duration 12 months (extensions up to 12 months available).
Phase II awards are $600,000 for 24 months (same amount across all 10 topic areas).
Phase I success rate around 15%; Phase II success rate about 45–50%.
Phase I TABA: $6,500; Phase II TABA: $50,000.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Melinda Kaufman from the USDA Small Business Innovation and Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Program. We're housed inside the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, or nifa. And we're very happy to be here today to talk to you a little bit about our program. You may not have thought about it, but the United States Department of Agriculture really plays a vital part in the lives of U.S. citizens. We meet your basic needs of food, clothing and shelter. We feed over 9 billion people by the year 2050. That's the expectation. We also are very involved in renewable energy and products, developing sustainable energy and materials. And of course, we are concerned with preserving natural resources of soil, water, air and life. The budget for RSBirstTR program is around $34 million. For phase one, the awards range from 125,000 to 175,000. For SBIR, the duration of the phase one award is eight months and for STTR it is 12 months. I will add that is very simple process to get up to 12 month extension if you need more time for your phase one project. For phase two, it's $600,000 funded at $600,000 for all 10 topic areas. So all awards are at $600,000 and that duration for those projects is 24 months. A few of the features of the USDA SBIR programs are that the ideas are investigator initiated and the awards are based, of course, on scientific and technical merit and also at the same time the commercial potential of the innovation, because these programs are interested in getting those innovations out there to the public. And then we also look at the PI and the company qualifications Subcontractor subcontracting to university and federal labs is encouraged for SBIR and is required for sttr. And then we also offer technical and business assistance. So as you can see here, this is a little bit about our funding rate for phase one and phase two. For phase one, it stays pretty steady, around 15%. So we are not able to fund all the projects we would like to fund just due to budget constraints, so that it's very competitive at 15% phase 2 inches up over the years. And so we're hovering between 45 and 50% success rate for phase two. We also offer technical and business assistance or Taba. And for phase one, that's $6,500. And it's primarily used to develop a commercialization plan for phase two. Remember, in phase two, you're really starting to ramp up the commercialization side of, of your innovation in an effort to get it out there in the market. And so the phase one 6500 is used to develop your plan for how you're going to commercialize this beginning in phase two. And then when you get to phase two, Taba is available at $50,000 to help you get that invention out into the market. Our typical program deadlines timelines are for Phase one. It's released in July. The proposal deadline is September or October. The reviews and the awards are December through February, and the start date is in July. For phase two, again, that's only open to Phase one awardees. The solicitation is released in December. The proposal deadline is in March. Reviews and awards notifications are April and start date is September. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like further information. This is our new brochure and we hope you'll take a look at that. I'm Melinda Kaufman. I'm the USDA SBIRSTTR program coordinator. And be sure and visit our website, which the address is right here. We hope that you will contact us if you have any questions. Thank you.
