The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 2006 SBIR and STTR Phase 1 program solicitations opened on July 7, 2006. The solicitation documents are combined, however, the review, selection and award processes will be conducted separately for each program. The solicitation package is available in HTML, WORD (doc and rtf), PDF, and TXT file formats at http://sbir.nasa.gov/SBIR/sbirsttr2006/solicitation/index.html. The deadline for submitting proposals is September 7, 2006.

It is expected that NASA will select approximately 250 SBIR proposals and approximately 30 STTR proposals for negotiation of Phase 1 contracts of up to $100,000. Following contract negotiations and awards, Phase 1 contractors will have up to 12 months to carry out their programs, prepare their final reports, and submit Phase 2 proposals. NASA anticipates that approximately 40 percent of the successfully completed Phase 1 projects will be selected for Phase 2 fixed-price contracts up to $600,000.

The SBIR Program Solicitation topics and subtopics are developed by the NASA Mission Directorates and Centers in coordination with the NASA SBIR/STTR programs. The four NASA Mission Directorates (MDs) and the number of research topics available for each are listed below:

Aeronautics Research (4 topics and 21 total subtopics) Exploration Systems (14 topics and 33 total subtopics) Science (8 topics and 32 total subtopics) Space Operations (2 topics and 14 total subtopics)

For the STTR solicitation, each topic corresponds to nine specific NASA Centers. Two subtopics per topic reflect the current highest priority technology thrusts of that Center.

To participate in the NASA SBIR program, firms must have Internet access and an e-mail address. Paper copies of the solicitation will not be distributed. Information relating to the formulation of proposals is available via the following web sites:

NASA 2006 Strategic Plan: http://www.nasa.gov/about/budget/index.html

NASA Mission Directorates: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/hq/organization/index.html

NASA Innovative Partnerships Program: http://www.ipp.nasa.gov/

NASA SBIR/STTR Programs: http://sbir.nasa.gov

For additional information regarding the NASA SBIR program, contact the SBIR/STTR Support Office at REI Systems, Inc., Phone (301) 937-0888, Fax (301) 937-0204, Email sbir@reisys.com

Courtesy: SBIR Alerting Service (http://www.pnl.gov/edo/sbir)