Suppose an SBIR/STTR agency is considering two Phase I proposals but can only afford to fund one of them. The first proposal says, "We have a great answer to an urgent problem and can implement it while being a complete commercialization success." The second one says, "Well, if you are willing to give us the money, I guess we'd be willing to do the work." Which one do you think the agency will fund?

The answer seems obvious, but then why do national experts see so many Phase I proposals that fail to make a compelling case for the agency to fund the project?

Maybe it is because you expect the reviewer to figure out the compelling attributes hidden within the 25 pages of technical details. WRONG. You can't play hard-to-get with a harried reviewer who seldom has time to dig through your proposal trying to figure out its importance.

Maybe it is because you think it is illegal, immoral, or high carb to be compelling in the proposal. WRONG AGAIN. This is a proposal – a sales document – not a peer-reviewed, professional paper being considered for journal publication.

Maybe you can't think of any compelling reasons for the agency to fund your project. Then why are you proposing it? Agencies want to fund good proposals with significant outcomes, and you want to work on meaningful projects with commercial potential, so don't propose uninteresting projects.

Maybe you don't realize you are in competition for SBIR/STTR awards. On average, only about one out of every six Phase I SBIR proposals gets funded, and some topics have much lower odds. If everyone else has made a compelling case for their project, your ho-hum proposal hasn't got a chance.

Maybe you don't realize that most agencies that make SBIR/STTR awards as grants (National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the US Department of Agriculture) fund "good ideas," and therefore, you have to convince them that your good idea is the best of all the other SBIR/STTR proposals they receive. Making a compelling case for your project helps a reviewer decide this.

"Ah," you say, "but I'm applying to an agency that makes its SBIR/STTR awards as contracts, and therefore they already tell me in the topic why it is important. I don't have to make a compelling case for something they already say they need." Once again, you are WRONG. Even when a contract agency (like the Department of Defense, NASA, US Department of Commerce, the US Department of Transportation, EPA, or the Department of Homeland Security) indicates the importance of the problem in the solicitation topic description, you need to indicate in your proposal that you understand it is important, appreciate the need to solve it, and grasp the urgency of the situation.

The bottom line is that you have to make a compelling case for your SBIR/STTR proposal to maximize its chances of success. We've focused on Phase I in this article, but this is also true of Phase II where competition is a lot stiffer. If you don't make a compelling case, you risk your proposal being passed over for one in which the writer helps the reviewer understand why his or her project MUST be done.

· Contact an SBIR counselor ·