The Department of Defense (DoD) Calls for Innovative Solutions

Posted by on August 29, 2021 at 2:45 PM | 0 Comments

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WISCONSIN — The Department of Defense issued a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) with pre-release topics for small businesses to choose from. All proposals for the program must have the potential for commercialization and must meet specific U.S. Government R&D needs. You must be a small business that meets certain qualifications in order to be eligible for this program. To view all qualifications, please visit SBA’s SBIR/STTR Eligibility Guide. There is an opportunity for up to $1.5M in funding per small business for each project. 

To get involved in the program, start with these steps:

1. Review the current pre-release topics to determine what direction your small business would like to go. The following topics may be of particular interest to area businesses:
   • 1. Improved technology to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections
     2. Nondestructive concrete characterization systems
     3. Modeling and Design tool for bio-based construction products
     4. IoT Network Access control
     5. Cybersecurity tools
     6. Head & Neck protection system for acute and chronic injury mitigation
     7. Secure Collaboration Environment
     8. Land use from nontraditional analytics (geography project!)
     9. Novel spacecraft power supply
     10. Electronics embedded glass
2. Reach out to the Wisconsin Center for Technology Commercialization (CTC) for topic selection and proposal writing assistance.
3. Understand the below schedule for the program. This means asking questions on pre-release topics during the BAA Pre-release time frame and getting ready to submit a proposal within the BAA Open time frame, before the October 21, 2021 deadline.

Program Schedule:

1. BAA Pre-release (8/25/2021 – 9/20/2021)– During the pre-release period the BAA is released but not open to accepting proposals. This is the time that a small business may contact the technology topic point of contact (TPOC) to ask questions relevant to the pre-release topic material. TPOCs can be found under each pre-release topic on the BAA list.
2. BAA Open (9/21/2021 – 10/20/2021)- Proposals are accepted during this period only. All proposals must be submitted electronically via the DoD's submission system. Also, during this period, direct contact with the TPOC is no longer allowed.
3. BAA Closed (10/21/2021)- Immediately following the submission deadline, the DoD will stop accepting submissions. After the closing date, the evaluation process of submissions will commence. Depending on the volume of submissions, notification of a selection for an award can range from one to several months.

Additional Information:

The Center for Technology Commercialization is Wisconsin’s no-cost resource to guide you through the complex and exciting journey of bringing your technology from idea to market. Reach out to the CTC for guidance and supplemental funding throughout the process.

More about the SBIR/STTR Program:

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) programs  are competitive government-funded contracts or grants that encourage domestic small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development (R/R&D), explore their technological potential, and provide incentive to profit from its commercialization.

The two main award phases for the program are as follows:

SBIR Phase I: Concept Phase awards up to $256,000

SBIR Phase II: R&D Phase awards up to $1,500,000

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