ED National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) FY-12 SBIR Solicitation. All SBIR projects funded by NIDRR must address the needs of individuals with disabilities. The closing date is Monday, February 13, 2012.

ED Institute of Education Sciences (IES) FY-12 SBIR Phase I in Education: Solicitation #ED-IES-12-R-0006 is a request for Phase I proposals for awards up to $150,000 for the research and development of prototypes of education technology products to improve student learning directly or indirectly (e.g., through teacher practices) in authentic education delivery settings (e.g., schools, after-school programs, or distance learning programs), or to facilitate research in the field of education. The closing date is Wednesday, February 22, 2012.

ED IES FY-12 SBIR Phase I in Special Education: Solicitation #ED-IES-12-R-0007 is a request for Phase I proposals for awards up to $150,000 for the research and development of prototypes of technology products used by infants, toddlers, or students with or at risk for disabilities, or teachers (or other instructional personnel, related services providers, or family members) in early interventions or special education. The closing date is Wednesday, February 22, 2012.

ED IES FY-12 SBIR Fast-Track in Special Education: Solicitation #ED-IES-12-R-0005 is a request for Fast-Track (Phase I & II) proposals for awards up to $1,050,000 for the research and development of technology products used by infants, toddlers, or students with or at risk for disabilities, or teachers (or other instructional personnel, related services providers, or family members) in early interventions or special education. The closing date is Wednesday, February 22, 2012.

For more information regarding the solicitation, including additional forms and to post and view solicitation questions and answers, visit the NIST SBIR website at www.nist.gov/tpo/sbir/, or contact Micole A. Cheatham at micole.cheatham@nist.gov or (301) 975-8335.

Agilent Technologies
Aristotle Room
5301 Stevens Creek Blvd.
Santa Clara, CA 95051

With $110 million in funding annually, the NCI SBIR is one of the largest sources of early stage funding for small businesses in the cancer space. We prospect for companies on the leading edge of innovation and provide them with the funding necessary to advance their technologies through development and towards commercialization.  The Investor Forum is an exclusive event designed to connect the strongest and most promising NCI SBIR companies with life science investors and strategic partners.

The 2012 NCI SBIR Investor Forum is an exclusive event designed to connect the strongest and most promising NCI SBIR companies with life science investors and strategic partners. This is a rare opportunity for attendees to get a first look at some of the best emerging companies focused on innovative cancer-related technologies, and to establish new collaborations that will expedite the commercialization of these products. For more information and event updates, please visit: http://sbir.cancer.gov/investorforum/.

Highlights of this full-day conference include:

• Get a sneak preview of the top early-stage oncology companies currently funded by the NCI and learn about some of the latest cancer technology and therapeutic developments.
• Connect with 200 investors, venture capitalists, deal-makers, scientists, and small business leaders from the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.
• Engage in private breakout sessions and a networking reception with featured companies.
• Meet one-on-one with NCI leadership to gain new insights on funding and partnership opportunities and hear updates on new programs to accelerate promising cancer-related technologies to commercialization.

Registration is free, but limited. Investors and venture capitalists are invited to register today to reserve a space.

From our SBIR/STTR Advocate and Insider Rick Shindell You can view the latest SBIR Insider Newsletter HERE.

“Dear SBIR Insider,

I am pleased (a gross understatement) to inform you that SBIR HAS NOW BEEN REAUTHORIZED for a period of 6 years, ending September 30, 2017, and that includes STTR, and what was the Commercialization Pilot Program (CPP), now to be known as the Commercialization Readiness Program (CRP).

This was all done under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) HR.1540. All that’s left is for the President to sign the bill into law, and he has said he would.

There are many changes and additions to these programs, many you will probably like, some, perhaps “not so much. What you won’t read in press releases or the main stream press is that the SBIR program was a stone’s throw from being laid to rest.

The fatigue factor from several years of battling for reauthorization, and fighting for 14 continuing resolutions led some powerful forces to question the validity of a program that can’t be reauthorized. “If it can’t be passed, let it die” was the word from one source. And die it would, had there not been serious compromises.

Although reauthorization has passed, your role is not done. It is vital that our SBIR community stay “tuned in” and active because your input will be requested relating to the changes and how the program is working for you. Although we have a six year reauthorization, I can assure you that some SBIR issues will be revisited by congress during this period.

Rather than giving you a laundry list of changes, we are in the process of creating a detailed technical document explaining the new legislation (sans legalese) and how it will most likely effect small business, the agencies, and academia. That will be in our next issue.

The legislation gives the SBA 180 days to implement new policy directives for SBIR and STTR. As those are being developed, public comments will be solicited. We’ll let you know about those when they happen. Your input will be critical! The new eligibility regulations must implemented within 120 days.

For those of you who want the bill’s language, we have created a PDF of the SBIR legislation from the conference report that was passed. It is 107 pages from the 1844 page NDAA document. You’ll find it at www.zyn.com/sbir/insider/SBIR_Pages_from-HR1540conf.pdf

At this point you have “certainty” that the SBIR/STTR programs will continue, but uncertainty as to how the agencies will handle the changes (even the agencies will need to get up to speed on the details).

On the other hand there may very well be another CR if congress is unable to pass the omnibus appropriations bill before they go home for the holidays. The CR would be to keep the agencies funded for a short period (having nothing directly to do with SBIR authorization).

The Real Story of SBIR Reauthorization

Regardless of what you may see in the press about people taking credit for SBIR reauthorization, one person, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, towers over all others. I guarantee you that without Senator Landrieu and her extraordinary efforts in this political climate, SBIR would not have survived.

Jere Glover, SBTC executive director, who has been a keystone in SBIR since its inception and has been an important participant in every SBIR reauthorization, stated : “There has never been a Senator that has done more for the SBIR community, and spent more personal time and personal involvement than Senator Landrieu.” On the reauthorization process Glover stated “SBIR reauthorization has always been tough, but never like this.”

Landrieu worked closely with her committee’s ranking member Olympia Snowe (R-ME), who has been an important supporter of SBIR since the beginning, and several others also played important supporting roles. On the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senators Carl Levin (D-MI), and John McCain (R-AZ) made it possible to include SBIR reauthorization language in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012.

In fact, this morning shortly before passage of the NDAA, Senator Levin stated: “The conference report includes Senator Landieu’s bill to extend the small business [innovation] research, the SBIR program for an additional six years. It’s been about six years since we reauthorized this vitally important program which provides a huge benefit to our small businesses so that they can effectively participate in research programs that are funded by the federal government. In the defense arena, SBIR has successfully invested in innovate research and technologies that have contributed significantly to the expansion of the defense industrial base in the development of new military capabilities.”

On the House side, we have Buck McKeon (R-CA) chair of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), and ranking member Adam Smith (D-WA) to thank. But they needed persuasion and support to do this, and that came from a dedicated SBIR champion, Congresswoman Niki Tsongas (D-MA) who worked hard to get a lot of congressionals and the House leadership on board to support the Senate’s bill over the House’s (not an easy or politically popular feat). Traditionally there’s not a lot of “love” between House and Senate.

HASC may not have been able to include SBIR without the support that Congresswoman Tsongas was able obtain. She is a true SBIR champion, and is very considerate of her constituents, as well as grateful for the support that many of you gave to signing on to the SBTC’s SBIR letter to congressional leadership. That made a huge difference!

In a conversation with Ms. Tsongas, I thanked her for all her hard work and dedication to the SBIR program. She said, “Rick, it took a village.”

Villages can be quaint but they can also be troublesome. On the Senate side, Landrieu had things under control, but on the House side she ran into some,,, lets say trolls and grouches. SBIR reauthorization was always problematic in the House due to some of the trolls in the form of House Small Business Committee chair Sam Graves (R-MO) and ranking member Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), and the grouch in the form of House Science Committee chair Ralph Hall (R-TX). They tried to block SBIR inclusion in the NDAA and it was looking bleak for SBIR.

This behavior has been going on for years, and the trolls continued to block SBIR from being reauthorized (unless it was their way). Ms. Landrieu, in what may have been a Howard Beale moment, was mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it anymore, went over to the House, and had a talk with these people face-to-face, allegedly in a language they could understand (terminology by Harry Truman).

That, along with your efforts, and those of some other groups in contacting the leadership and other congressionals, helped sway things in a manner we have not seen in the SBIR world. Velazquez backed off, and Graves & Hall finalized a compromise with Landrieu that the Senate and House could live with. Both House & Senate leadership played an important role in getting this done.

In the next issue we will have detailed analysis of the changes to the program and we’ll let you know who all the hero’s were to help make this possible. There are lots!

Of course none of this would be possible without staff, and one staffer stands out from all the rest. Nobody, be it government or private sector has been more dedicated to SBIR, or has fought harder or longer for you and small businesses, than Ms. Kevin Wheeler. Kevin has been a warrior, and has often times been vilified because she wouldn’t cave in to the ridiculous demands of high rolling, high pressure lobbyists, or the House Small Biz and S&T staffers doing their bidding. They did not appreciate Ms. Wheeler’s protecting the interests of small business.

That’s all for now and we can get some rest. Congratulations and thanks to all of you who helped make this happen!

Here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Yontif, Festivus and Gafe Gake.

We’ll be back before the New Year.

Sincerely,
Rick

Rick Shindell, SBIR Gateway, Zyn Systems, 40 Alderwood Dr. Sequim, WA 98382 - 360-681-4123 rick@zyn.comwww.zyn.com/sbir

*Information is provided as a resource and the views expressed by Zyn Systems and the SBIR Insider are not necessarily represented in part or in whole by the IPart or its individual Partner Organizations.

From our SBIR/STTR Advocate and Insider Rick Shindell You can view the latest SBIR Insider Newsletter HERE.

“Dear SBIR Insider,
We have some very encouraging news for you on the status of SBIR reauthorization, but contrary to what you may have read, SBIR has NOT been reauthorized.

We have been deluged with calls and emails tonight by those who said they read in another newsletter that SBIR was reauthorized. Although a deal was struck this afternoon, SBIR reauthorization has not yet happened, but we’re closer than we’ve ever been in this iteration of the reauthorization process.

YOU DID IT! (or, many of you did it..)
An agreement between the Senate and House on SBIR/STTR reauthorization has been reached. Reauthorization is in the form of negotiated modifications to an amendment offered to the Senate’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2012 (NDAA), by Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship.

It was thought by many that chances for the SBIR reauthorization to stick in the NDAA was very remote. However, last week, more than 1,000 small businesses and affiliates responded to a collective plea, to sign on to a letter to Congress (about 950 prior to the cut off time), encouraging congress to keep the Senate’s SBIR reauthorization amendment in the NDAA. This was a combined effort, led by the SBTC, and supported by several organizations. But the credit must go to those of you who offered to sign. Your voice was important!

That action provided much needed leverage to our SBIR champions to keep SBIR in the NDAA, and “encourage” the House to be on board. We’ll discuss the heros in the next issue.

Those of you who are long time readers of the SBIR Insider, have an idea of how difficult this journey has been. Although the bountiful and beautiful operatic soprano has yet to sing, House Small Business chair Sam Graves (R-MO), and House S&T chair, Ralph Hall (R-TX) made a joint announcement of agreeing to a deal on Landrieu’s SBIR amendment this evening.

Because this agreement is part of the much larger NDAA, it was asked that details be kept to a minimum until the entire NDAA conference agreement is forthcoming (hopefully tomorrow, but soon).

A few details we can present include:

• Authorization for 6 years (through 2017)
• Majority ownership by VC, private equity and hedge funds allowed up to 25% for NIH, DOE and NSF, and up to 15% for the others.
• Increasing the SBIR allocation from 2.5 to 3.2 percent and the STTR allocation from .3 percent to .45 percent incrementally over the 6 years of reauthorization.
• Allows 3% of SBIR funds for the agencies to use for administration, outreach, and increasing participation from “have not” states, and minorities.
• Does not include House section 505, limiting awards to companies, but develops guidelines to measure success of a firm’s participation.
• Does allow (at an agency’s discretion) skipping of phase I (limited to DoD, NIH, and ED).

We will provide the details once it all comes into focus.

Senate Confirms Winslow Sargeant as SBA’s Chief Counsel for Advocacy
Dr. Winslow Sargeant has been confirmed by the Senate for the position of Chief Counsel for Advocacy at the SBA. Dr. Sargeant has been very active serving in that position under a recess appointment by President Obama since August of 2010.

The Office of Advocacy is an independent voice for small business within the federal government, and Dr. Sargeant is the sixth person nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to be Chief Counsel for Advocacy.

Two of the previous Chief Counsels are SBIR giants, the late Milton Stewart, and Jere Glover. Dr. Sargeant becomes the third with an SBIR background to hold this position.

Dr. Sargeant has been a success in small high tech business, having co-founded a company (Aanetcom ) that was ultimately acquired by PMC-Sierra, a publicly traded company. He earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was well known and liked as an SBIR program manager at the NSF, then later was managing director of Venture Investors, LLC, in Madison, Wisconsin.

Although the position of Chief Counsel for Advocacy keeps Dr. Sargeant extremely busy, he is still a friend and supporter of the SBIR program.

The SBIR Insider congratulates Dr. Sargeant on his appointment and Senate confirmation.

Closing
This is the most optimistic I’ve been in many years about keeping the SBIR program alive and well. However, I’ve had one of my readers respectfully, but firmly suggest to me that either they have pulled the wool over my eyes (on the reauthorization terms), or I’m a sellout.

I can agree with my reader that there are some provisions in the SBIR reauthorization that are not good for small business, and I’m not happy about those. However, there is much more good than bad. Only those of us on the insider know how very close we have come to losing the SBIR program. The difference between having an SBIR or not, has been in the hands of a very few dedicated people on the Hill, and they were severely battered and worn down.
We were all told that failure to reach a compromise would result in the loss of the program, so the challenge became trying to get as good a deal as possible (you’ve been witness to this struggle for several years).

Keep in mind that the program can be changed at any time (even after reauthorization), and there will be continuing studies such as those by Dr. Charles Wessner and the National Academy to measure the success of the program and those changes that have been made to the program.

Overall, I think we’re in pretty good hands.”

Rick Shindell, SBIR Gateway, Zyn Systems, 40 Alderwood Dr. Sequim, WA 98382 – 360-681-4123 rick@zyn.com www.zyn.com/sbir

*Information is provided as a resource and the views expressed by Zyn Systems and the SBIR Insider are not necessarily represented in part or in whole by the IPart or its individual Partner Organizations.

Each workbook, with the exception of the “TOTALS” workbook contains 5 tabs: Summary Tab; SBIR Phase 1 Tab; SBIR Phase 2 Tab; STTR Phase 1 Tab; and, STTR Phase 2 Tab.  Please look at the tab within each workbook to determine what specific awardee content populates each tab.  Following the awardee records in each spreadsheet is a summary for that Tab.

Data fields in each spreadsheet are as follows:

1.    Record #
2.    Federal ID #
3.    Federal Agency
4.    Branch
5.    Company Name
6.    City
7.    Zip
8.    Phase
9.    Year
10.  $ Amount of Award
11.  Proposal Title

Where available, we have found weblinks to company websites for data contained in 2004-2008 spreadsheets.  We hope that you find this information useful.

• Pennsylvania SBIR/STTR Awardee Summary 2002 to 2010
• Pennsylvania SBIR/STTR Awardees 2010
• Pennsylvania SBIR/STTR Awardees 2009
• Pennsylvania SBIR/STTR Awardees 2008
• Pennsylvania SBIR/STTR Awardees 2007
• Pennsylvania SBIR/STTR Awardees 2006
• Pennsylvania SBIR/STTR Awardees 2005
• Pennsylvania SBIR/STTR Awardees 2004
• Pennsylvania SBIR/STTR Awardees 2003
• Pennsylvania SBIR/STTR Awardees 2002

* Disclaimer – All information/data contained in these spreadsheets was compiled from a combination of public websites including TECH-net http://web.sba.gov/tech-net/public/dsp_search.cfm or from individual Federal Agency websites that publicly provide SBIR/STTR Awardee results.  IPart makes no claims as to the absolute accuracy of the compiled data and is providing it as a convenient resource for its Partners and clients.  Any data that is absent was either not readily available or absent at the time of compilation.  Should discrepancies be discovered, please e-mail changes or corrections to Kelly S. Wylam at kelly@benfranklin.org.

Dear SBIR Clients & Interested Parties:

Clients are strongly encouraged to begin working with their IPart Sponsor as early as possible! Click here for more information about current solicitations.

Open Solicitations

Upcoming Solicitations*

* Dates are subject to change
** Release dates are subject to SBIR Reauthorization

After that date, you will be required to use FedConnect to communicate your questions about individual topics.

The schedule for 2012 Phase I Release 2 is shown below:

TCOMM (Technology Commercialization) EVENT
“Commercializing New Technologies”
100 Lytton Avenue
Holiday Inn, Pittsburgh @ University Center (Oakland)
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Register before Oct. 4 and pay only $119

The TCOMM Event is a fast-paced, interactive conference designed for small businesses and innovators that want to commercialize new technologies.

Keynote speaker, Lalit Chordia, Ph.D. is the president and founder of Thar Technologies, Inc. which specializes in commercial applications for high-pressure carbon dioxide process technologies. Listen as he details his path to success – from the creation of a new idea to commercialization to SBA Exporter of the Year.

View a list of the other speakers here!

Additional Opportunity:
How to Win SBIR Awards – October 14
Have a special interest in early-stage R&D funding? Spend the next day with renowned expert John Davis, General Manager of the SBIR Resource Center, in Pittsburgh at Duquesne University learning the secrets to winning SBIR-STTR Awards. The cost of this event is $175.

Register for both event days, October 13 and 14, and pay only $219.