It cannot be overemphasized that SBIR is a competitive research or R&D program. Successful Phase I proposals describe technical efforts sufficient to establish the feasibility of a concept. Therefore, the most important content in the proposal is the scientific/technical expertise (including originality, innovativeness, scientific/technical merit) that you bring to bear on an agency problem, need, or mission area.
Like it or not, the burden is on you to convince reviewers that your proposal is worth funding. Further, while reviewers are technically qualified, you cannot expect that their expertise will be sufficiently close to your area that they will "recognize a good idea when they see one."
You will need to develop and present technical arguments to support the originality and expected benefits of your proposed efforts. The reviewers will have enough technical background to follow your arguments. But that doesn't mean they will agree with them. You must take great care to verify the accuracy or plausibility of all claims, assumptions, and approaches.
In the first section of this chapter we shall discuss three essential components of a proposal. We will also identify a fourth and even more important component: scientific and technical quality, which is communicated to the reviewer through its incorporation in the other components. We shall discuss the relative importance of each component and how they relate to formal proposal structure and to space allocation.
The second section presents details on what should be considered in preparing each component (and sub-component). Often the perspective taken is that of the reviewers. SBA has discussed the review of SBIR proposals with technical evaluators and has also reviewed written comments made by evaluators. We shall attempt to communicate what the technical reviewers look for in each proposal component and with regard to scientific/technical quality. In some instances verbatim reviewer comments on particular proposals are repeated to emphasize a point we are making.
Finally, in the third section, we will suggest tips on writing and presentation in order to enhance the readability, logic, and appearance of your project. This section will close with some general guidance.
