Small Business Technology Transfer Program Phase I Solicitation FY 2014 | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program Phase I Solicitation for FY 2014 (Funding Opportunity Number 13-547) is a discretionary, grant-based funding opportunity designed to move research-based innovations toward commercialization by pairing U.S. small businesses with nonprofit research institutions such as universities. The program’s larger purpose is to stimulate private-sector technological innovation, help federal R&D results become real products and services, and broaden participation in innovation, with particular encouragement for socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses and women-owned small businesses. This solicitation is issued under the authority of Public Law 112-81, the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011, which formalizes the STTR structure and its emphasis on collaboration between small firms and research institutions.

A central theme of this specific Phase I solicitation is “NSF funding lineage.” NSF makes clear that it is highly desirable for the core innovation in an STTR proposal to be traceable to fundamental research that was previously supported by NSF. In other words, the proposal should build on or derive from earlier NSF-funded research results, even if that earlier work happened at a different institution or involved different people. Applicants are expected to document this lineage directly in the Project Description, showing how the prior NSF-funded fundamental research connects to the proposed innovation and why that foundation makes the project technically credible and commercially promising. Importantly, the solicitation states that it is not required for the original NSF-funded researchers to be part of the STTR team; what matters is that the innovation itself can be meaningfully linked back to NSF-supported fundamental research.

Proposed projects must fit within one of four broad topic areas identified by NSF for this solicitation: Biological and Chemical Technologies (BC), Education Applications (EA), Electronics, Information and Communication Technologies (EI), or Nanotechnology, Advanced Materials, and Manufacturing (NM). While these are broad umbrellas rather than narrowly defined subtopics, the intent is to keep proposals aligned with NSF’s science and engineering portfolio and to ensure the work is positioned as research and development with a credible pathway to a commercial outcome.

On funding and scale, NSF anticipated making about 50 Phase I awards under this solicitation, with an estimated total funding amount of $11,250,000. The award ceiling is listed as $225,000 for Phase I. There is no cost sharing or matching requirement, which lowers the barrier for early-stage companies that may not have substantial non-federal funds available. The funding activity category is “Science and Technology and other Research and Development,” and the opportunity is associated with CFDA 47.041 (Engineering Grants), signaling NSF’s orientation toward technical R&D.

Eligibility is limited to firms that qualify as a “small business concern” under the applicable federal definitions referenced in the solicitation. Joint ventures and partnerships may apply as long as the created entity itself qualifies as a small business concern consistent with program rules. A defining feature of STTR, emphasized in the eligibility requirements, is the mandatory allocation of work between the small business and the collaborating research institution: for a Phase I proposal, at least 40 percent of the R&D effort (measured by budget) must be performed by the small business, and at least 30 percent (measured by budget) must be performed by the nonprofit research institution partner. This structure is meant to ensure the small business is genuinely driving commercialization while the research institution is also playing a substantive, intellectually significant role rather than serving as a minor consultant. Beyond the required institutional partnership, the solicitation encourages companies to leverage broader research capabilities available through universities, national laboratories, and other research providers using subcontracts, consulting agreements, or by bringing faculty and students onto the project in appropriate roles.

The Principal Investigator (PI) requirements are also spelled out clearly. The PI’s primary employment must be with the small business at the time of award, defined as at least 51 percent employment by the small business. NSF notes that a typical full-time work week is 40 hours and treats employment elsewhere above 19.6 hours per week as conflicting with the primary employment requirement. In addition, the PI must devote at least two calendar months of effort to the Phase I project, and NSF requires employment releases and certifications of intent prior to award. These rules are designed to ensure that the small business has real leadership capacity dedicated to executing the work and driving it toward commercialization.

The solicitation set a strict proposal submission window: full proposals were due June 13, 2013, and proposals submitted outside the May 13, 2013 to June 13, 2013 window would be returned without review. The opportunity is now archived (archive date December 24, 2014), but the solicitation remains a useful reference for understanding NSF’s STTR Phase I expectations around research partnership structure, PI employment rules, and the program’s emphasis on commercialization grounded in credible prior research.

Finally, NSF explicitly discourages submitting the same project idea to both this STTR Phase I solicitation and the concurrent SBIR Phase I solicitation. That guidance reflects NSF’s desire to avoid duplicate submissions across closely related programs and to encourage applicants to choose the program that best matches their project’s structure, especially given STTR’s required research-institution collaboration and work-share rules.

For applicants needing the full official details at the time, NSF referenced “NSF Publication 13-547” as the primary announcement document, and provided support contacts for Grants.gov access issues.

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