Solicitations

The SBIR and STTR solicitation process is made up of 3 periods:

Solicitation Release - The release period (sometimes referred to as pre-release) is a time period where the solicitation is issued but not open to accepting proposals. During this time a small business may contact the technology topic point of contact (TPOC) to ask questions relevant to the topic material. The release period generally is about 30 days in length. Also during this time period topics may be altered or deleted.

Solicitation Open - Proposals are accepted during this period only. All proposals must be submitted electronically via the DoD's submission system. Also during this period, direct contact with the TPOC is not allowed. Questions relevant to the topic may be submitted via the DoD's public SITIS system where the TPOC may answer questions in this public forum. Solicitations are generally open to proposals for 30 days. Note: Traffic on the web site submission site is extremely heavy towards the end of the solicitation period. Companies that wait till the last few hours may find it difficult to upload their submissions during this time and risk the chance of not submitting before the deadline. Proposals submitted after the published deadline will not be evaluated.

Solicitation Closed - Immediately following the submission deadline, the DoD will stop accepting submissions. After the closing date, the evaluation process of submissions will commence. The selection process is time consuming and complex. Depending on the volume of submissions, notification of a selection for an award can range from one to several months.

Selections - Prior to the making of an award, a company may be selected for further consideration (a selectee). A list of selectees will be posted on the Navy SBIR web site and updated weekly as new selections are made. After the contract award process is complete, the Navy web site will list the winners, the contact information and the proposal abstract.