NSF SBIR Budgeting: The Direct Costs

Now let's tackle the first category, which are the direct costs. And these costs are vital for carrying out your proposed R&D research that you mentioned in your SBIR application. In my experience assisting clients, we want to first start off by identifying what we want to propose if we were to get the funding from the NSF. Once we have its implementation strategy, next thing is to pinpoint what are all the direct costs necessary to bring that strategy to completion. So basically, the direct costs are the concrete resources you and your startup need to carry out your research demands. And this includes salaries for key roles like the principal investigator or the PI, senior key personnel like engineers and scientists, and other similar roles to carry out the proposed research. Additionally, direct costs also encompasses materials and supplies, essential travel like to the NSF workshop for Phase I awardees, expenses for publishing and documentation, consultant fees, subawards, amongst other stuff. So essentially, you can think about the direct costs as the fundamental elements that will drive your research forward.