Advancing Technology through Government

Volume 3, Issue 1 July 22, 2011

By Joan Stader

In my last blog, I talked about the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) programs available under various defense agencies. Defense is not the only department issuing these solicitations; they are also available through Commerce, Energy, Transportation and Health and Human Services. These are an excellent way to get start-up money because the Federal Government is willing to fund more risky ventures than private investors are. Usually, what Uncle Sam gets in return is the rights to use the technology without having to pay a license fee (if your IP comes from work funded by the US Government). My partner and I recently got an SBIR Phase I award to build an analytical prototype instrument. This will cover three full-time salaries and two consultants for six months, buy needed laboratory equipment and pay rent for laboratory space. At the end of the six months, we will have a benchtop prototype which will qualify for a Phase II developent award (up to $1M for two years). We will also have the needed proof-of-principle to make the deal look much more attractive to private investors.

Joan

Comment Policy: Comments are welcomed and encouraged on this site, but should be relevant to the post topic. Including a link to relevant content is permitted. Comments deemed to be spam or questionable spam, will be deleted. Comments including profanity, language or concepts that could be deemed offensive, or that attack a person individually will be deleted. The owner of this blog reserves the right to edit or delete any comments submitted to this blog without notice. This comment policy is subject to change at any time.

Privacy Policy: We do not share personal information with third-parties nor do we store information we collect about your visit to this blog for use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies, which you can turn off at anytime by modifying your Internet browser's settings. We are not responsible for the republishing of the content found on this blog on other Web sites or media without our permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author as a representative of ATG Consulting, except where noted, and should not be taken to represent those of ITEN, any other organization the author is associated with, or the U.S. Government, its agencies, employees or representatives. The content of this blog is not intended to malign, defame or libel any individual, ethnic group or organization. The content of this blog, including hyperlinks, is timely and may cease be accurate on a future date. Advice, tips, techniques or recommendations contained in this blog may not apply to all situations; therefore, the author shall not be held responsible for injury resulting from following such advice, tips, techniques or recommendations. The author is not responsible, nor will be held liable, for anything contained in the blog comments. The author receives no monetary compensation for writing this blog.

Advancing Technology through Government by Joan Stader is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Tags: start-up funding | SBIR | Mentor

Advancing Technology through Government

Volume 2, Issue 2 April 25, 2011

By Joan Stader

The Department of Defense (DoD) will issue a solicitation for Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) proposals from high tech small businesses tomorrow.  If you are not familiar with these opportunities, you should check them out, because you can get up to $150K for a six-month Phase I and up to $1M for a two-year Phase II.  Army, Navy, Air Force, DARPA, and DTRA (Defense Threat Reduction Agency), MDA (Missile Defense Agency), NGA (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) and OSD-DHP (Office of the Secretary of Defense, Defense Health Program) all participate in the solicitation.  The solicitation lists a number of topics that they are interested in.   This is a great chance to obtain funding to help you develop your technologies if they are of interest to Uncle Sam. 

You will be able to find the solicitation at http://www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/sbir on April 26.  Let me know if you need any assistance in finding out more about this opportunity.

Joan

Comment Policy:  Comments are welcomed and encouraged on this site, but should be relevant to the post topic.  Including a link to relevant content is permitted.   Comments deemed to be spam or questionable spam, will be deleted. Comments including profanity, language or concepts that could be deemed offensive, or that attack a person individually will be deleted. The owner of this blog reserves the right to edit or delete any comments submitted to this blog without notice. This comment policy is subject to change at any time.

Privacy Policy:  We do not share personal information with third-parties nor do we store information we collect about your visit to this blog for use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies, which you can turn off at anytime by modifying your Internet browser's settings. We are not responsible for the republishing of the content found on this blog on other Web sites or media without our permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice.

Disclaimer:  Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author as a representative of ATG Consulting, except where noted, and should not be taken to represent those of ITEN, any other organization the author is associated with, or the U.S. Government, its agencies, employees or representatives.  The content of this blog is not intended to malign, defame or libel any individual, ethnic group or organization.  The content of this blog, including hyperlinks, is timely and may cease be accurate on a future date. Advice, tips, techniques or recommendations contained in this blog may not apply to all situations; therefore, the author shall not be held responsible for injury resulting from following such advice, tips, techniques or recommendations.  The author is not responsible, nor will be held liable, for anything contained in the blog comments.  The author receives no monetary compensation for writing this blog.

Advancing Technology through Government by Joan Stader is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Tags: SBIR | Government R&D | Mentor

Advancing Technology through Government

Volume 2, Issue 1 April 5, 2011

By Joan Stader

DARPA is looking for proposals for a Human Language Technology (HLT) R&D program called Broad Operational Language Translation (BOLT) with the purpose of technology that can translate “multiple foreign languages in all genres, retrieve information from the translated material, and enable bilingual communication via speech or text.”   There are three Technical Areas under which proposals should be submitted, Algorithmic Development and Integrated Systems, Data Collection, and Evaluation.  The program synopsis can be found at https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=c0ce5c6fd3ac09847fb31dfd5686e943&tab=core&_cview=0.

Multiple awards are anticipated for the DARPA BOLT Program.  Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Small Businesses, Small Disadvantaged Businesses and Minority Institutions are eligible but there is no set-aside for these organizations, so the competition is open. 

There will be an Industry Day on April 12, 2011 in Arlington, VA.  Registration for this event can be found at http://www.caci-conferences.com/Default.aspx/bolt201104.

Let me know if you need any assistance in finding out more about this opportunity.

Joan

Comment Policy:  Comments are welcomed and encouraged on this site, but should be relevant to the post topic.  Including a link to relevant content is permitted.   Comments deemed to be spam or questionable spam, will be deleted. Comments including profanity, language or concepts that could be deemed offensive, or that attack a person individually will be deleted. The owner of this blog reserves the right to edit or delete any comments submitted to this blog without notice. This comment policy is subject to change at any time.

Privacy Policy:  We do not share personal information with third-parties nor do we store information we collect about your visit to this blog for use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies, which you can turn off at anytime by modifying your Internet browser's settings. We are not responsible for the republishing of the content found on this blog on other Web sites or media without our permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice.

Disclaimer:  Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author as a representative of ATG Consulting, except where noted, and should not be taken to represent those of ITEN, any other organization the author is associated with, or the U.S. Government, its agencies, employees or representatives.  The content of this blog is not intended to malign, defame or libel any individual, ethnic group or organization.  The content of this blog, including hyperlinks, is timely and may cease be accurate on a future date. Advice, tips, techniques or recommendations contained in this blog may not apply to all situations; therefore, the author shall not be held responsible for injury resulting from following such advice, tips, techniques or recommendations.  The author is not responsible, nor will be held liable, for anything contained in the blog comments.  The author receives no monetary compensation for writing this blog.

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br /><span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" property="dct:title" rel="dct:type">Advancing Technology through Government</span> by <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="/ www.itenstl.org" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL">Joan Stader</a> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.

Tags: Government | Funding Opportunity

Advancing Technology through Government

Volume 1, Issue 3 March 27, 2011

By Joan Stader

Broad Agency Announcements

Many of the R&D opportunities within the Federal Government come through  BAAs (Broad Agency Announcements).  This type of solicitation is well suited to small businesses which are developing new technologies.  In general, after a BAA is released (“hits the street”, as we say in the business) by a particular Government agency, it remains open for anywhere between a month and 5 years. 

The official definition of a BAA can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)—by the way, get used to acronyms because government programs are loaded with them—under 48CFR 2.101, “a general announcement of an agency’s research interest including criteria for selecting proposals and soliciting the participation of all offerors capable of satisfying the Government’s needs.” 

BAAs are released at the Federal Business Opportunities website, which is something that I look at every day.  At this website you can search for solicitations either by entering the number of the solicitation or some other search criteria.  What I do is set up the automatic notification feature so that I receive a daily email listing all of the solicitations that meet my search criteria.

The BAA describes the general scope of the program, the amount of money available, who is eligible, how to apply, whether the work will require clearance credentials, and R&D topic areas.  I’ll illustrate with a BAA that you may be interested in looking into, entitled “Research and Development for Technical Collection of Intelligence” and its Solicitation Number is BAA-01-10-VACA.  This BAA, which covers work to be performed for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), originally hit the street on November 25, 2009 and will stay open until November 30, 2014. 

Funding under BAA-01-10-VACA was anticipated to be $6M per fiscal year (FY) 2010 through 2014 for R&D resulting in first and second generation prototypes of devices whose specifications are presumably laid out in the full BAA, which is classified at the SECRET level. 

The BAA comprises two parts, the “BASIC BAA” and the “CALL BAA”.  The basic BAA lays out the general description of technologies the Agency is looking for.  If you have a technology which can be used in some novel way to help the Agency reach its objectives, you can compete for some of the money.  For example, it may be that they are looking for software that will help them to analyze a wide variety of data types in several different languages.  If your company has a product that is particularly good at translating languages and you have some ideas for additional algorithms to allow analysis at a higher level of complexity, then you can pitch this idea to the Agency.

Periodically, the agency will announce a call for proposals that have specific objectives in a particular topic and has an expected dollar range for proposals, and this is referred to as a “CALL BAA”.  For BAA-01-10-VACA, one of these announcements was released on March 4 and it is seeking vendors who can deliver a capability to detect and identify portable communications devices as they move through a defined area.

For planning purposes, count on a year-long process from the time of the release of the BAA to the project kick-off.

Joan

Comment Policy:  Comments are welcomed and encouraged on this site, but should be relevant to the post topic.  Including a link to relevant content is permitted.   Comments deemed to be spam or questionable spam, will be deleted. Comments including profanity, language or concepts that could be deemed offensive, or that attack a person individually will be deleted. The owner of this blog reserves the right to edit or delete any comments submitted to this blog without notice. This comment policy is subject to change at any time.

Privacy Policy:  We do not share personal information with third-parties nor do we store information we collect about your visit to this blog for use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies, which you can turn off at anytime by modifying your Internet browser's settings. We are not responsible for the republishing of the content found on this blog on other Web sites or media without our permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice.

Disclaimer:  Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author as a representative of ATG Consulting, except where noted, and should not be taken to represent those of ITEN, any other organization the author is associated with, or the U.S. Government, its agencies, employees or representatives.  The content of this blog is not intended to malign, defame or libel any individual, ethnic group or organization.  The content of this blog, including hyperlinks, is timely and may cease be accurate on a future date. Advice, tips, techniques or recommendations contained in this blog may not apply to all situations; therefore, the author shall not be held responsible for injury resulting from following such advice, tips, techniques or recommendations.  The author is not responsible, nor will be held liable, for anything contained in the blog comments.  The author receives no monetary compensation for writing this blog.

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br /><span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" property="dct:title" rel="dct:type">Advancing Technology through Government</span> by <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="/ www.itenstl.org" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL">Joan Stader</a> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.

Tags: Broad Agency Announcement | Federal Government | Research & Development

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Advancing Technology through Government

Volume 1, Issue 2

By Joan Stader

With all the discussion of federal spending, continuing resolutions and spending reductions, perhaps it’s worth taking a look at where we stand as technology entrepreneurs in the big scheme of the federal budget. Some months ago I was quite angry at the Government’s bailout of large companies like General Motors. I wanted to ask the question “Why can’t we just let GM fail and let the talented designers, engineers and marketing folks from General Motors spin off their own companies?” But the answer was obvious: Because the payoff would not come soon enough to have an effect on the politicians’ re-election campaigns. As the whole scenario played out, however, it seems that the outcome was for the best because Uncle Sam stands to actually get a favorable return on his investment (for now, but that’s a topic for another day . . .).

It’s always going to be riskier to invest in a new venture than to buy blue chip stocks but, frankly, it’s not the US Government’s mission to make business investments except in the case of an economic crisis. On the other hand, it is totally appropriate for the Government to invest in new technologies to ensure that the U.S. continues to be a leading economy and that we have the most capable national defense in the world. In fact, investing in new technologies should be the Government’s Number One budgetary priority. I could have said that Defense should be numero uno, but most of the country’s R&D budget is spent on Defense programs, so it actually is at the top.

Insofar as investment in technology goes, the Uncle Sam actually does spread the wealth reasonably well. Here are a few ways he does that: First, there’s the federal investment in academic research and education—think of all the grants that go to our colleges and universities for basic research. Plus, another benefit of academic research is to educate (the academic three-legged stool is Teaching, Research and Service). Second, there are tax breaks for companies investing in R&D. Third, there are R&D contracts issued through various agencies such as the Department of Defense (DOD), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and many others. These contracts go to both large and small businesses throughout the world as well as the National Laboratories and universities. Fourth, the Government does even more when there’s a critical need. Consider the need for energy independence in the U.S., especially now that the Middle East is growing more unstable politically—for this, the Department of Energy guarantees loans to businesses that are developing new technologies that will contribute to the new energy infrastructure.

Information Technology is so intimately tied in with other new technologies that ITEN members would do well to look into some of the opportunities that arise each and every day. This can be a very time-consuming activity, so I will direct you to some of the open solicitations released by the Government for R&D. Below is a list of solicitations that you may be interested in. To find out the details, cut the Solicitation Number from this article and paste it in the “Search” box at the Federal Business Opportunities website.

Solicitation Number Title

NIAID-DAIT-NIHAI2010109 Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource Program

ONRBBAA11-013 Communications and Networking Discovery and Invention

11-SN-0004 “Data to Decision”

DoD STTR FY2011.A DOD STTR

DARPA-BAA-10-83 Office-Wide Broad Agency Announcement Microsystems Technology Office

BAA10-83 Strategic Technology Office (STO) Broad Agency Announcement

ONRBAA11-001 Long Range Broad Agency Announcement for Navy and Marine Corps Science

DHSS-TLRBAA11-03 2011 DHS S&T LRBAA

W31P4Q-06-R-0159 Broad Agency Announcement for Research and Development utilizing new and innovative technologies to advance the capabilities in Applied Technology for interceptor technologies and defense infrastructure technologies

BAA-01-10-VACA Research & Development for Technical Collection of Intelligence Data

I would enjoy hearing from you if you have questions, comments or feedback.

Joan

Comment Policy: Comments are welcomed and encouraged on this site, but should be relevant to the post topic. Including a link to relevant content is permitted. Comments deemed to be spam or questionable spam, will be deleted. Comments including profanity, language or concepts that could be deemed offensive, or that attack a person individually will be deleted. The owner of this blog reserves the right to edit or delete any comments submitted to this blog without notice. This comment policy is subject to change at any time.

Privacy Policy: We do not share personal information with third-parties nor do we store information we collect about your visit to this blog for use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies, which you can turn off at anytime by modifying your Internet browser's settings. We are not responsible for the republishing of the content found on this blog on other Web sites or media without our permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author as a representative of ATG Consulting, except where noted, and should not be taken to represent those of ITEN, any other organization the author is associated with, or the U.S. Government, its agencies, employees or representatives. The content of this blog is not intended to malign, defame or libel any individual, ethnic group or organization. The content of this blog, including hyperlinks, is timely and may cease be accurate on a future date. Advice, tips, techniques or recommendations contained in this blog may not apply to all situations; therefore, the author shall not be held responsible for injury resulting from following such advice, tips, techniques or recommendations. The author is not responsible, nor will be held liable, for anything contained in the blog comments. The author receives no monetary compensation for writing this blog.

Advancing Technology through Government by Joan Stader is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Tags: Technology | Government Contracting | Research & Development | Mentor

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Advancing Technology through Government

Volume 1, Issue 1

By Joan Stader

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the “Advancing Technology through Government” blog! 

This blog is intended to be a vehicle, especially tailored to ITEN companies, for mentoring and educating entrepreneurs and communicating timely information, toward the goal of doing Research & Development for the United States Government.  Becoming a government R&D contractor is an excellent way to earn significant revenue and to develop technologies needed to advance our national interests.  At the same time, you can leverage that work into the development of commercial products that your company can market.

Don’t limit yourself to the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs—these are only a tiny fraction of the opportunities out there.  Every Government Agency that awards contracts to industry has a target percentage of funds that are to be awarded to small businesses.  This can be accomplished either by awarding the contract directly to a small business or by awarding the contract to a large business who, in turn, subcontracts portions of the work to small businesses.  So, you can write the proposals yourself, or you can become a partner with large companies who already have an established track record with the Government.

How does one find out about these opportunities?  You can go directly to the Federal Business Opportunities website or to the individual agency websites.  Alternatively, you can read this blog regularly and I will inform you of the ones that make it through my filter.  I check the opportunities every day, so I plan to make posts to this blog at least several times a week.

I would enjoy hearing from you if you have questions, comments or feedback.

Joan

Comment Policy:  Comments are welcomed and encouraged on this site, but should be relevant to the post topic.  Including a link to relevant content is permitted.   Comments deemed to be spam or questionable spam, will be deleted. Comments including profanity, language or concepts that could be deemed offensive, or that attack a person individually will be deleted. The owner of this blog reserves the right to edit or delete any comments submitted to this blog without notice. This comment policy is subject to change at any time.

Privacy Policy:  We do not share personal information with third-parties nor do we store information we collect about your visit to this blog for use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies, which you can turn off at anytime by modifying your Internet browser's settings. We are not responsible for the republishing of the content found on this blog on other Web sites or media without our permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice.

Disclaimer:  Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author as a representative of ATG Consulting, except where noted, and should not be taken to represent those of ITEN, any other organization the author is associated with, or the U.S. Government, its agencies, employees or representatives.  The content of this blog is not intended to malign, defame or libel any individual, ethnic group or organization.  The content of this blog, including hyperlinks, is timely and may cease be accurate on a future date. Advice, tips, techniques or recommendations contained in this blog may not apply to all situations; therefore, the author shall not be held responsible for injury resulting from following such advice, tips, techniques or recommendations.  The author is not responsible, nor will be held liable, for anything contained in the blog comments.  The author receives no monetary compensation for writing this blog.

Advancing Technology through Government by Joan Stader is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Tags: Research & Development | Technology | Government | Mentor