SBA Handbook for SBIR Proposal Preparation
Chapter III - Preparing The Proposal
A. Proposal Components
A quality proposal has three generic components each targeted towards addressing one of the following questions:
1) What is the significance of the problem? What problem are you going to solve (or what are you going to produce) and what difference will your efforts make?
2) How you are going to go about resolving the issue identified in component 1? What are your specific technical objectives and what are their roles in proving of feasibility? What are the details the work plan for accomplishing the objectives?
3) Why you are the right firm to perform the work? What evidence can you provide to establish your firm's credibility, including your awareness of the state-of-art, your firm's previous experience in the conduct of related R&D, and the qualifications of key personnel, of consultants, and of your facilities.
In evaluating SBIR proposals, agency reviewers assign points to criteria which generally parallel these components. In order to determine the precise weights of the criteria for a given agency, you should carefully read each agency solicitation for specific statements on the weighing of criteria. For most agencies, each of the above components accounts for about 20% of the total score.
What about the remaining 40%? It is assigned to a fourth criterion:
4) The scientific/technical quality, innovativeness, and originality of the proposed project. This criterion is not addressed in a distinct part of the proposal. Rather you must keep your attention on this criterion as you prepare the above three components, especially the first two.
Each of the above components plus the fourth criterion will be discussed in more detail in section III B. A lthough the discussion of scientific/technical quality comes last, do not underestimate its importance.
It is important to understand that each agency prescribes in its solicitation its own format for structuring the proposal. This format should be strictly adhered to. Agency reviewers who must compare and evaluate many proposals expect to find similar sections in all of the proposals they review. While the section headings may not correspond directly with the above three generic components, notice that the same flow of information is being sought.
SBIR proposals are presently restricted in length to 25 pages. Accordingly the judicious use of space is very important. For example, the sections which comprise component 3, credibility enhancers, only count for about 20% of the score (30% in one agency). Therefore do not give this component an excessive amount of attention in the proposal. Many losing proposals wasted valuable space by including detailed resumes of anyone related to the effort, long lists of the firm's clients, previous work and products, etc.
There is no formula for determining how to allocate space among the other sections of the proposal. The important thing is to ensure that your proposal is sensitive to the criteria that the reviewers are using to evaluate your proposal. Simultaneously, allocation of space to particular sections should reflect your own style and task. Tailor the precise number of pages devoted to components in your proposal in a manner which will make the most persuasive presentation.
