Broad Agency Announcement and Commercial Solutions Opening

DoD uses the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) funding mechanism to procure basic and applied research via announced scientific study and experimentation topics tailored to advance the state-of-art, increase knowledge or understanding, instead of focusing on a specific system or hardware solution.

A Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) is a competitive procedure to acquire existing and potential innovative commercial items, technologies, capabilities, or services that fulfill requirements, close capability gaps, or provide potential technological advancements.

Currently, the DoD releases two topic types:

For current SBIR/STTR BAA or CSO opportunities, visit: DSIP.

SBIR

SBIR is a competitive three-phased process to solicit proposals for research/research and development (R/R&D), production, services, or any combination to meet stated agency needs or missions; and to award funding agreements to qualifying SBCs.
 
Only United States small businesses that meet the following criteria are eligible to participate in SBIR programs:

1. Organized for profit with a place of business located in the United States;
2. Be more than 50 percent owned and controlled by one or more individuals who are United States citizens or permanent resident aliens, or by other SBCs that are each more than 50 percent owned and controlled by one or more individuals who are United States citizens or permanent resident aliens; and
3. No more than 500 employees, including affiliates.

Key Points to Note:

• In Phase I, the proposing SBC must perform a two-thirds minimum of the research/work.
• In Phase II, the proposing SBC must perform a one-half minimum of the research/work.
• The SBC must be the principal investigator’s primary employer.

STTR

STTR is a parallel program with the added requirement that SBCs partner with colleges/universities, federally funded R&D centers (FFRDCs) or qualified non-profit research institutions on cooperative R/R&D.

1. The SBC awardee and its partnering institution are required to establish an intellectual property agreement detailing the allocation of intellectual property rights and rights to carry out follow-on research, development, or commercialization activities.
2. STTR requires the SBC performs at least 40 percent of the R&D and a single partnering research institution performs at least 30 percent of the R&D.
3. STTR allows the principal investigator to be primarily employed at the partnering research institution.

Academic Research and Lab Resources

• Lab Partnering Services:

  Lab Partnering Services (LPS) is US Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT)’s flagship platform for discovering, connecting, and partnering with the DOE’s world class R&D portfolio. LPS provides multi-faceted search capabilities across numerous technology areas and the national laboratories to enable fast expertise discovery and serve as a conduit between the investor and the innovator.

• Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions(HBCU/MI):

  Post-secondary institutions enrolling populations with significant percentages of undergraduate minority students or that serve certain populations of minority students under various programs. The SBIR/STTR program encourages HBCUs/MIs educational institutions’ innovation and participation.

• Federally funded research and development centers:

  Not-for-profit, private-sector organizations established and funded to meet special long-term engineering, research, development, or other analytic needs that government or other private-sector resources cannot as effectively meet.

Additional Resources:

• Mentor-Protégé Program:

  In the past five years, proteges participating in DoD’s Mentor-Protégé Program (MPP) were awarded more than $6.5 billion in contracts and subcontracts.

• Indian Incentive Program:

  The Indian Incentive Program (IIP) helps Indian organizations and Indian-owned economic enterprises win subcontracts.

• Rapid Integrated Scalable Enterprise (formerly the Rapid Innovation Fund):

  Rapid Integrated Scalable Enterprise (RISE) provides SBCs a collaborative vehicle with the Department for innovative technologies that can be rapidly inserted into acquisition programs meeting specific defense needs.

• Innovation Pathways:

  The Innovation Pathways website serves as a gateway for industry, SBCs, students, universities, and DoD organizations to discover opportunities with the Department.

• APEX Accelerators:

  The APEX Accelerators program supports the Department’s efforts to identify and help a wide range of businesses enter and participate in the defense supply-chain. The program provides the education and training to ensure that all businesses can capably participate in federal, state, and local government contracts.

  Other federal contracting programs you may be eligible for:

• Woman-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program:

  The Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract program authorizes contracting officers to award sole-source contracts to WOSBs.

• Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Program:

  The qualities developed during military service—discipline, tenacity, and adaptability—ensure Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB) are excellent entrepreneurs.

• Historically Underutilized Business Zones:

  In full and open competition, a historically underutilized business zones (HUBZones)-certified company bid receives a 10 percent price-evaluation preference.

• Small Disadvantaged Business:

  Each year, the Federal Government awards about 10 percent of all federal contract dollars, or roughly $50 billion in contracts, to small disadvantaged businesses.

• 8a Business Development Program:

  To provide a level playing field for socially and economically disadvantaged people or owned-entities and SBCs, the government limits competition for certain contracts to businesses that participate in the 8(a) Business Development Program.

  Additional Resources on Technology Transition

• OTST

• APFIT

• RDER

• STRATFI/TACFI

• STP/VTM