Last year, the Department of Defense launched a new effort to fund innovators, engineers, entrepreneurs, and businesses large and small that have good ideas. It is the Open Business Cell and its associated website is DefenseSolutions.gov.

They are now seeking new ideas to resolve their needs, and especially want to find people that may never have done business with DoD before. Please help us inform Missouri’s science, technology, research and development organizations and associated commercial businesses about this effort.

At their new website, http://www.DefenseSolutions.gov., it describes some of DoD’s needs. They want to develop the best ideas submitted by the public to the prototype stage for testing and evaluation, to see if they really are good solutions. DoD will fund these developments. Typically each project would be about half a million dollars and be completed in less than 24 months. If the prototypes successfully pass the field tests, there is solid potential for future procurement.

The site has one or more topic areas for which companies and individuals may submit their ideas. Submitting an idea is entirely free form and can be done on the site with the click of a button. Additional topics will be added when more DoD needs are identified and money is available to fund prototype development. Interested people or companies can sign up at the site to be notified when new topics are posted.

Ideas that are competitively selected for development will use a “commercial-like” rapid contracting method that is easy for businesses and individuals to understand. Organizations and individuals submitting ideas need not be familiar with government contracting or procurement at all. All submitted ideas are protected and will not be disclosed except to the government experts that evaluate them. Most assuredly, they will not be disclosed to competitors.

Please spreading the news of this endeavor throughout Missouri’s commercial community and to any specialized state or regional organizations promoting research, development, science, or engineering.

Strategic Analysis Inc. is operating the Open Business Cell for the Department of Defense. Their binding Non-disclosure Agreement prevents them from communicating any information that they gain from the Open Business Cell to anyone, even their own company.

Further questions: Contact

David A. Edwards

Open Business Cell/Rapid Fielding Directorate/DDR&E Contractor, Strategic Analysis Inc.

david.a.edwards.ctr@osd.mil

dedwards@sainc.com

(703) 588-2413 (O)

(571) 334-7821 (cell)

1401 Wilson Blvd, Room 820

Arlington, VA 22209

A boot camp for companies interested in submitting a Phase I SBIR/STTR grant to the NIH will be held at the ITenterprise building near the UM St. Louis campus on July 15-16th.   This proposal writing workshop will help busy PIs draft a quality and hopefully winning proposal for the August 5th SBIR/STTR deadline set by NIH.  Please see the following link for the boot camp brochure and to find out how to register.

http://www.missouribusiness.net/fast/docs/bootcamp_sbir_july10.pdf

New Job Listing Website For SBIR Companies Looking For Universities, Faculty And Grad Students

The National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer works with over 200 research universities and educates thousands of faculty, grad students and post-docs each year on commercializing their research.

We recently added a job listing section to our website so that SBIR companies can more easily find university researchers. If you would like to work with some of the best researchers in the world on your existing or next SBIR application, please submit your current openings for researchers or solicitations for principle investigators (PIs) at “Job Opportunities” at http://center.ncet2.org.

With SBIR/STTR applications becoming increasingly competitive you can gain a winning edge by hiring university faculty, grad students and post-docs for your SBIR/STTR projects.

The listings are free and are a service to researchers taking our very popular commercialization courses, so please use the website for your researcher needs. Positions can be full-time, part-time or virtual. The positions also can be paid positions or internships.

Workshops and webinars offered and planned at the Research Commercialization and SBIR Center this year:

• Research Commercialization Introductory Course
• Building University-Industry Collaborations Series
• Government Research Funding Programs Series
• International Innovation Series
• SBIR Programs Series
• What Are Universities Doing to Create and Fund University Startups
• Finding Early Stage Funding for Research-Intensive Companies
• Marketing Strategy for Researchers
• Product Development and the Innovation Process for Researchers
• Structuring and Leading the Research-Intensive Company
• Tech Transfer: Working with Universities and Federal Labs for Researchers
• Understanding Business Law and Regulations for Researchers
• Understanding Patents and the Patent Application Process for Engineers and Scientists
• Understanding SBIRs for Researchers
• Angel and VC Presentations for Research-Intensive Companies
• Applying to the DoD SBIR Programs
• Applying to the DOE SBIR Program
• Applying to the NIH SBIR Program
• Applying to the NSF SBIR Program
• Business Plan Creation for Research-Intensive Companies

More information on the classes available at Research Commercialization and SBIR Center.

Here is more information about the event scheduled for 3/12-3/13

http://www.missouribusiness.net/calendar/date.asp?EventID=97300&Date=3/12/2010&SessionID=1

Technologist Robert Cringley and the Kauffman Foundation have a new website where you can nominate a promising start-up company.

http://collaborize.democrasoft.com/portal/portal/default/cringelyslist

More information about the origins of the project can be found here:

http://www.cringely.com/2010/02/the-cringely-2010-not-in-silicon-valley-startup-tour/

Squabbling Over VC Loophole Leaves SBIR Program in Limbo

By Karl Thiel
BioWorld Today Columnist
Forget health care reform. Forget even a regulatory pathway for follow-on biologics. Congress can’t even get it together to reauthorize a program that is widely popular, largely uncontroversial, and that most people would agree has been a rousing success.

I’m talking about the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant program and its companion, the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. These officially expired in September 2008, and they have been living hand-to-mouth ever since on a series of continuing resolutions. The third such resolution, extending the program through Sept. 30, was passed at the end of July just before the program dried up for good.

It’s not that there is no political will to reauthorize these programs, but rather that the details of how 11 government agencies spend 2.5 percent of their external research budgets (or maybe 3.5 percent if the Senate gets its way) have led to a remarkable level of political in-fighting, lobbying, counter-lobbying, and dissension.

Two reauthorization bills did pass the House and Senate, respectively, in July, but some stark differences remain. When it became clear that there was no hope of ironing out the differences before the August recess, Congress punted once more. But luckily, that means that if you haven’t taken a side, there’s still time to get involved before debate resumes, hopefully in early September.

A VC-based Division
The issue getting the most attention is the extent to which venture capital-backed companies are allowed to participate in the program. The House bill would give them largely unfettered access, while the Senate version would allow NIH to give only 18 percent of its SBIR funds to companies that are majority owned by VCs (and other agencies would be limited to just 8 percent). But there are some other differences that have gotten less attention.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) loves the House version. Loves it. And it’s easy to see why. It makes the SBIR program more amenable to its members. Current Phase I SBIR grants for $100,000 don’t really go a long way in the biotechnology biz, whereas expanded Phase II grants that would rise to $2 million or more under the House bill could make a real difference to a small company. Most biotech companies don’t get far without venture backing, so limiting the participation of majority VCowned companies is tantamount to limiting the participation of biotech…or at least that’s what BIO argues.

Not surprisingly, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) is also gleeful about the House bill, since it would give them access to the SBIR cash pool for the first time since 2003, when the Small Business Administration, as a result of an administrative ruling, determined that majority VC-owned companies weren’t really small businesses.

In the opposite corner, we have representatives of small business like the Small Business Technology Council. They prefer the Senate bill, pretty much for all the same reasons. The SBIR program, particularly as it would be structured under the House bill, is a competition over slices of a finite pie, and larger grants mean fewer grants. More grants to VCbacked companies mean fewer grants to non-VC-backed companies. It’s a zero sum game that they fear losing.

It’s easy to detect the taint of BIO and NVCA lobbying in the House bill, and its opponents are quick to point out that the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), who chairs the House Small Business Committee, wouldn’t allow any dissenting debate on the expanded role of VCs while the legislation was being considered. But as Otto Von Bismarck once said, laws are like sausages – it’s better not to see them being made. It’s still possible that the resulting bill will improve the SBIR program.

The Regional Undertones
Possible, but unlikely. At best it will probably have some unfortunate regional consequences. More awards going to VC-owned companies mean more awards going to California, New York, and Massachusetts, and fewer to the South and Midwest, which is why small business associations in these areas are particularly incensed about the proposed changes. (And perhaps why Velázquez is particularly receptive to the expanded role of VCs in the program.)

Keep in mind that VC-backed companies can and do already get SBIR grants – it’s only majority VC owned companies that can’t participate (and the Senate bill would give some more wiggle room on this). The reasoning that barred such companies from the program in 2003 still holds – they’re not really small businesses. Congress can change the law, but in doing so they’ll also be going away from the original intent of the program.

Even so, just opening the program to more VC-backed companies probably wouldn’t be such a big deal in isolation. After all, that was how the program operated until 2003, and if the small business groups opposed to the House bill have data showing that the program has improved since the VC-backed scoundrels were thrown out, they’re not doing a good job publicizing it.

Combining this with other changes, however, really could make life tougher for inchoate businesses. In particular, the House bill allows agencies to skip over Phase I grants and go straight to Phase II, the awards for which would be increased to $2 million or more from $750,000 today. That suddenly makes the program a lot more like another source of venture capital. One inflated Phase II grant suddenly displaces 20 current Phase I grants.

There are very few capital sources equivalent to a Phase I SBIR grant, which is intended to fund early feasibility or proof-of-concept work. If the government gives up on these grants, or greatly reduces them in the interest if funding more advanced work, a lot of early-stage ideas may never get off the ground.

What’s particularly troubling is that it comes at a time when technology business incubators around the country are struggling and VCs are increasingly less interested in funding early-stage work themselves. VCs may love the idea of mitigating their portfolio risk with a little extra government money, but they may at the same time be contributing to the demise of one of the few real sources of capital for vetting new ideas at their earliest stages – ideas that they may thus never see come through their doors.

Karl Thiel, an analyst for the Motley Fool, can be reached at kthiel@qwest.net. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of BioWorld Today.

Dear SBIR Insider,

This is an abbreviated SBIR Insider to let you know that the House just passed the Senate’s Continuing Resolution (CR), S.1513 that keeps the SBIR program, as well as a few other SBA programs running (as is) through September 30, 2009. The CR is good in some ways and bad in others as you will see.

SBIR SAVED FROM LAPSING BY AN 11TH HOUR CR

The House and Senate have been meeting regularly in conference to reconcile their vastly different SBIR reauthorization bills into one cohesive SBIR reauthorization before the deadline date of July 31, 2009 when the program’s current CR will expire. Although significant progress has been made, there’s still a good deal of work to be done and it was simply not possible to reconcile their views before the deadline.

In the event that the SBIR bill could not be passed before the deadline, Senator Marry Landrieu (D-LA), chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, along with her ranking member, Olympia Snowe (R-ME) sponsored a bill (S.1513) to issue a short continuing resolution for SBIR and a few other SBA programs through September 30, 2009. The bill passed the Senate by Unanimous Consent on July 24 and was sent to the House.

Due to some contentious issues going on in the House (nothing to do with SBIR), the vote was postponed from Tuesday but was passed Wednesday by voice vote. Nothing has been easy in this SBIR reauthorization exercise.

The Good News - Negotiations will continue at staff level while the congress is on their August break (August 7 - September 8), and with this extra time to work the issues, it is hoped that a better reauthorization can be reached and passed by Congress when they return. In the mean time the program continues. The high profile of SBIR reauthorization has promoted (to some degree) overall congressional awareness of the importance and success of the program, so it is unlikely that SBIR will go away, but it could change immensely, perhaps beyond recognition. We’ll discuss that in the next issue.

The Bad News - The uncertainties of the SBIR program future, its intricacies and demands, are causing a great deal of hardship on the agencies who are struggling to support the program, not to mention plan for whatever changes Congress has in mind. This also affects the small businesses who wonder if funding will be available, and if so, under what circumstances (keeping in mind that all of the awards are subject to the availability of funding).

During the congressional recess (aka “district work period”) the senators and representatives will visit their districts and may be available to hear your input, either one-on-one or at a town hall. In our next issue (coming soon), we will highlight the areas of difference between the two reauthorization bills, and you can decide if you want to champion any issues that affect you and your organization.

STTR PARTNERING EXPERIMENT PART II

You may remember our DoD STTR Partnering Experiment earlier this year that allowed Universities, FFRDCs, non profits and small businesses to look for an STTR partner for a particular DoD STTR topic. We had over 300 topic registrations last time and we will try it again for the DoD FY-09B STTR and the current NASA STTR. I’m currently behind the power curve on this project but you should be able to access it from our SBIR Gateway by Monday, August 3, 2009 (hopefully sooner over the weekend).

Here’s how it works:

1. Universities, FFRDCs, small businesses and other non-profit research entities fill out the form and select the STTR topics of partnering interest.

2. A database will be created that associates the topics with the interested organizations as described above.

3. Interested parties can search the topic database to see what organizations may be interested in partnering on specific topics.

4. Participating organization’s contact information will be presented as a result of the search.

As with all Zyn’s SBIR Gateway features, it is an independent effort (not supported by any government agency) and is a no charge service in the hopes of helping you build successful SBIR/STTR relationships. You’ll find the project at http://www.zyn.com/sbir

THE 2009 NATIONAL SBIR BEYOND PHASE II CONFERENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE

This Advanced SBIR Conference will take place September 21 - 24, at the Marriott World Center Hotel and Convention Center in Orlando, Fl. This popular event is hosted by the Department of Defense with participation of other government SBIR agencies. A primary goal is to provide a forum to transition SBIR Phase II technology to government and private sector markets. Many of the DoD Prime contractors attend seeking the innovation they need in their supply chain.

The conference will feature One-on-One technology matchmaking, Prime/Large Company Confirmed Participants, exhibits by phase II companies, large businesses, SBIR support companies, and industry service providers. There will also be educational and plenary sessions of interest to SBIR participants.

We hear the advanced registration discount has been extended through August 15, 2009. Get all the details at https://www.beyondphaseii.com or contact Andy Talbert at conference@esncc.com

The 2009 FALL NATIONAL SBIR CONFERENCE - RENO, NV After an absence of almost a year, the National SBIR conference returns! This year’s Fall National SBIR conference is going to be held November 2 - 5 in Reno, NV and will have a great variety of sessions of interest to beginners, intermediate and advanced SBIR participants. All of the SBIR agencies participate in these national SBIR conferences and it is a great opportunity to network one-on-one with SBIR program managers, and potential partners from universities, other small businesses and federal laboratories.

For complete information visit their web site at http://www.unr.edu/sbir-sttr2009/

That’s all for this quickie edition of the SBIR Insider.

Sincerely,

Rick

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

The renamed “Intelligence Battle Lab” along with other organizations on Fort Huachuca will be hosting their Annual Requirements Days 22 - 23 July.
This will kick-off the BL-I Request for Proposals.

Really look forward to a chance for MU and LW to take part in this 2 day Process:

The purpose of this event is to outline for industry, academia, and the scientific community the requirements for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance and Cyber operations support to the warfighter. The intelligence community is looking for cutting edge ideas and capabilities to help solve the challenges faced by the Army in an increasingly complex operational environment. Attendance at this event will provide you with the opportunity to hear the requirements first-hand, to take a tour of Fort Huachuca and discover exactly what capabilities and support Fort Huachuca provides to the warfighter, and it will also give you the opportunity to have on-site, private meetings with the SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) in the event you have questions regarding the requirements. White Papers outlining your solutions will be requested in the months following Requirement Days. This event will be unclassified.

Here is the Website along with some additional information.
https://www.ncsi.com/huachucards09/index.shtml

Bruce A. Sullivan
Battle Command Battle Lab-H Liaison
University of Missouri- Columbia
Office: 573-884-9445
GOV Cell: 520-251-8785
Cell: 417-658-9400
TechGuard Security

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/sales-of-start-ups-plummet-along-with-prices/

New York Times report on the activity of Venture Capital Firms in the US