In March, the chapter's Small Business Committee hosted Robert L. Smith, director, Department of the Navy Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) / Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) & Special Programs, as the guest keynote speaker for its virtual breakfast event. These programs provide opportunities for domestic small businesses and startups to deliver solutions to meet naval needs through Federal Research/Research and Development. These competitive, three-phase, awards-based programs aim to advance innovations while transitioning the resulting technologies to the Force/Fleet and commercialization in private markets.
Smith offered advice on how small businesses can position themselves to participate in upcoming opportunities. There are numerous activities designed to assist small businesses in fully developing, testing and inserting their technology into products and services. The program's goal is to create innovative solutions using American small businesses to commercialize technology. The Navy will award around $700 million per year to Phase III participants. He credits the success at Phase III with starting off with the warfighter in mind at the very beginning. They consider what happens if the technology works and where it will go. If these questions are successfully answered, the SBIR topic is introduced, which is the first step in the process.
On average, 200 topics are introduced annually. Typically, the program will receive approximately 3,000 proposals. Smith recommended using those available in the federal and state government who support fledgling small businesses. From those proposals, approximately 550 Phase I Feasibility Studies are awarded.
To move to Phase II, the Technology Development phase, awardees must show progress toward meeting milestones agreed upon in the Phase I Statement of Work. Other factors are technical merit, proposed personnel and commercialization potential of proposed Phase II approach. During this phase, it is important to keep the lines of communication open with the technical points of contact. Phase III is Commercialization. The technology is sold to military and civilian markets. Funding must be non-SBIR/STTR from the government or private sector. The Phase III contract may be awarded any time after the Phase I award is issued.
Smith discussed the differentiators between the Navy SBIR program and other agencies' programs. These include transition-driven topics, topic workshops, faster awards, a larger first payment and tailored transition support. They are specific to naval needs with defined transition targets.
The FY22's second pre-release is on April 20th. Proposal acceptance begins on May 18th and closes on June 15th.
The event concluded with a question-and-answer session moderated by Andrea Snader, Small Business Committee member.
For more information on the current Navy program, please visit https://www.navysbir.com, the official website of the DON SBIR/STTR programs, to find information about broad agency announcements topics, selections, program specifics, success stories, outreach events, points of contact and useful links and forms.
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