

DARPA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR): Topics - phugoid
http://www.acq.osd.mil/osbp/sbir/solicitations/sbir093/darpa093.htm

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bravura
Don't forget to other funding agencies besides DARPA:
[http://www.acq.osd.mil/osbp/sbir/solicitations/sbir093/index...](http://www.acq.osd.mil/osbp/sbir/solicitations/sbir093/index.htm)
as well as the STTR program:
[http://www.acq.osd.mil/osbp/sbir/solicitations/sttr09B/index...](http://www.acq.osd.mil/osbp/sbir/solicitations/sttr09B/index.htm)

The SBIR grants money to small businesses, about $100K for Phaise I (six
months) and $750K for Phase II (two years). The STTR is for collaborations
between a small business and a research institution (e.g. university).

In this batch of solicitations, I have seen a solicitation for "Computational
Models of Leadership" as well as a STTR on GPU/CUDA computing.

During the pre-release period (i.e. now) you can communicate directly with the
topic authors. This is a technique you can use to establish rapport with the
topic authors, which makes them more comfortable funding someone they've never
funded before.

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ivankirigin
SBIRs are like crack. It's easy money, but then you get on a government
delivery cycle and standards.

I wouldn't touch them at a startup.

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calcnerd256
The company for which I work is currently in a situation where we make most of
our money from SBIRs. Any suggestions for breaking out of that cycle?

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ivankirigin
Put all your resources into either selling something to someone besides the
government, or making something you can sell.

IRobot can sell their military robots to people like the police, and the
roomba side of course.

The alternative is going whole hog and getting more money from congress
outside the sbir process. Then you're a defense contractor.

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lallysingh
Search for "SB093-004" to jump to the software-related stuff.

