About half of all SBIR/STTR applications are reviewed in regular standing study sections. You will want to avoid this.
To receive a fundable priority score, your best bet is to place your application in an SBIR/STTR Special Emphasis Panel. In a regular study section, your SBIR/STTR is reviewed at the end of the meeting when people are hurried. To make matters worse, your application is unavoidably put into the context of an RO1 application, which has more preliminary data in it than your whole Phase I application is going to generate. Eventhough reviewers are specifically oriented to the SBIR/STTR review criteria and spirit, it is very difficult to actually get into that spirit under such circumstances. What a nightmare for obtaining SBIR/STTR funding.
In addition, RO1 study sections mainly contain academic researchers who do not always understand the demands of getting a small business underway. So do your best to avoid being reviewed in a standing study section.
Here is how to increase your chances of being reviewed in an SBIR/STTR SEP: go to this site: Special Emphasis Panels (SEPs). Do not use the search function. This function does not work well on this site. Scroll down and choose the IRG that is closest to your grant application area. Each IRG is composed of many study sections. Scroll down and find a study section that is specifically for SBIR/STTRs. They are usually last or second to last in the list of study sections. Now, click on the SBIR/STTR SEP. You will see an intro and then listings of different SBIR SEPs. You will see the specific areas covered by each SEP and areas of overlap with other SBIR SEPs.
Make sure that your Project Description (Abstract) and your cover letter are specifically tailored to the areas covered by your desired SBIR/STTR SEP. In your cover letter specifically name the SEP and specifially request that the application be reviewed by an SBIR/STTR specific SEP.
Under these conditions, you have the highest chance of being reivewed in an SBIR/STTR specific SEP.
Occasionally it is impossible to find an appropriate SBIR/STTR SEP. In this case your application will be reviewed by a regular study section. Well, just be sure that the application is extremely well written in terms of grantsmanship and you may still be OK.
Please feel free to contact me for further information or go to SBIR-STTRgrantshelp.com.
Click on this link to read about my E-Book: High Level SBIR/STTR Grant Writing Techniques.
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