Summary
Research and
Economic Development has established a
pilot program to stimulate and encourage UCR's participation in the U.S. Small
Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer
(STTR) programs, as well as increase interactions with promising small business
concerns (SBCs) interested in advancing innovative technology of mutual
interest. Through this pilot program, UCR will waive all facilities and administrative (F&A) cost on
all UCR subcontract proposals to SBCs applying for either SBIR or STTR Phase 1
funding.
The pilot
program is effective immediately and will continue through June 30, 2015, at
which time the program will be evaluated to determine if it will continue. It
is important to note that this pilot program does not apply to SBIR or STTR
Phase II funding, which will continue to be subject to UCR's standard
applicable research F&A cost rate.
Background
The Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) program is a highly competitive research funding program that
encourages domestic small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and
Development (R/R&D) that has the potential for commercialization. The
objective of Phase I is to establish the technical merit, feasibility, and
commercial potential of the proposed R/R&D efforts. If a SBC partners with a nonprofit research
institution (NRI), the SBIR award is made to the SBC who is then responsible
for subcontracting to the NRI. As a requirement of the funding program, SBCs
must carry out at least 67% of the proposed research and/or analytical effort.
The remaining 33% may be conducted by the NRI partner.
SBIR differs from STTR in two important
aspects:
1. The
principal investigator must have primary employment with the SBC (unless a
waiver is granted by the agency).
2. SBIR
encourages but does not require the SBC to partner with a research institution.
The STTR program
is a competitive research funding program aimed at stimulating technological innovation,
fostering technology transfer and increasing private sector commercialization
of technologies arising from federal funding. The central focus of this program
is bridging the gap between basic science and commercialization of resulting
innovations.
STTR differs
from SBIR in three important aspects:
- The SBC
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.
- STTR
requires that the SBC perform at least 40% of the R&D and the single
partnering research institution to perform at least 30% of the R&D.
- Unlike the
SBIR program, STTR does not require the Principal Investigator to be
primarily employed by the SBC.
Each Federal agency
participating in the SBIR and/or STTR program is responsible for administering
its own program within guidelines established by Congress. General information
about both of these programs and the Federal agencies participating in them may
be found at http://www.sbir.gov/.
Pilot Program Guidelines
The following
guidelines are applicable to this pilot program:
- Only
subcontract proposals to SBCs applying for either SBIR or STTR Phase
I funding are eligible for this pilot program.
- Subcontract
proposals under this pilot program may exclude F&A costs from the budget. A separate
request, using the approved template forms must be submitted, with the
eCAF, to Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) for each proposal
under this pilot program. SPA will endorse the request form and submit it
to the UC Office of the President for approval.
Request form templates
Questions
regarding this pilot program should be directed to either Charles Greer, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research at (951)
827-3093 or charles.greer@ucr.edu or Cynthia
Wells, Director of Sponsored Programs
Administration at (951) 827-4918 or cynthia.wells@ucr.edu.